Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki volcano erupted, burning homes and killing at least 10 on the island of Flores.

Maumere, Indonesia – Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency said at least 10 people were killed as a series of volcanic eruptions intensified on the remote island of Flores. Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki’s midnight eruption spewed ash as thick as 6,500 meters into the air and hot ash engulfed many villages, burning houses including Catholic monasteries, said Firman Yosef, an official at Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki. post monitoring.

Yosef said the volcano was thrown 3.7 kilometers from the crater, covering nearby towns and villages with tons of volcanic debris and forcing residents to flee.

The rescuers were still searching for other bodies buried under the collapsed houses, said Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for the National Disaster Management Agency. Muhari said all the bodies, including the child, were found at a distance of 2.4 kilometers from the pit. He said at least 10,000 people were affected by the explosions in six villages.

Some people fled to relatives’ houses while the local government was still building schools to be used as temporary shelters.

The country’s volcano monitoring center raised the alert level for the volcano to the highest level and more than doubled the containment zone to 4.3 miles by midnight on Monday as the eruption intensified.

A monk from the village of Hokeng died and another disappeared, said Agusta Palma, head of the Saint Gabriel Foundation that oversees monasteries on the predominantly Catholic island.

“Our monks came out in shock because of the volcanic ash rain in the dark,” said Palma.

Photos and videos shared on social media showed tons of volcanic debris covering houses up to their roofs in villages including Hokeng, where hot volcanic material set fire to buildings.

Lewotobi Laki-laki is one of the volcanoes in East Flores region of East Nusa Tenggara province known locally as husband – “Laki-laki” means husband and wife mountains. Its counterpart is Lewotobi Perempuan, or woman.

About 6,500 people were evacuated in January after Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupted, spewing black clouds and forcing the government to close Frans Seda Airport. No injuries or major damage were reported, but the airport has been closed since then due to earthquake activity.

In a video conference on Monday, Muhammad Wafid, the head of the Geology Agency in the Ministry of Energy and Mines said that there is a different shape between the eruption of January and the eruption of Monday due to the blocking of magma in the crater, which reduced the appearance of earthquakes in the season. build pressure.

“The explosions that have occurred since Friday were caused by the accumulation of hidden forces,” said Wafid.

It is the second volcanic eruption in Indonesia in as many weeks. West Sumatra’s Mount Marapi, one of the country’s most active volcanoes, erupted on October 27, spewing thick ash at least three times and blanketing nearby villages with debris, but no casualties. The eruption of Mount Marapi at the end of 2023 happened killing at least 23 people.

Lewotobi Laki-laki is one of 120 volcanoes in Indonesia, an island nation of about 280 million people. The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it sits on the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.