Four school pupils and a broadcast journalist are among 14 people dead following a catastrophic volcanic eruption in Indonesia.
Mount Sinabung’s forceful flare-up sent lava and pyroclastic flows (fast-moving clouds of liquid toxic gases and rock fragments) as far as 2.8miles in the province of North Sumatra.
In a cruel twist, almost 14,000 people who lived nearby had returned to their homes yesterday following a period of volcanic inactivity.
Officials had evacuated more than 30,000 over the last few months following an increase in gas eruptions but yesterday allowed thousands of those who lived outside of a three-mile danger zone to go back to their houses and farms.
The authorities had believed the activity to be decreasing in the 8,530ft-tall volcano.
Prior to August 2010 Mount Sinabung had sat dormant for more than 400 years.
The secondary school pupils who perished were with their teacher as they visited the mountain to see the small eruptions up close.
‘The death toll is likely to rise as many people are reported still missing and the darkness hampered our rescue efforts,’ said lieutenant colonel Asep Sukarna, who has lead the effort to retrieve charred bodies two miles from the volcano’s peak.