Death toll from volcano eruption in Indonesia reaches 6
National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said rescuers from various institutions, as well as volunteers and villagers, continued searching for victims, Kyodo reports.
The victims, according to Sutopo, were working on plantations in Gamber Village in North Sumatra Province's Karo Regency, about 4 kilometers from Mt. Sinabung's dome, when the volcano erupted Saturday afternoon.
"We don't know yet clearly how many villagers were in the village when the hot clouds arrived," he said.
The village is located within the mountain's red zone, which covers a radius of 7 km from the dome, and which should have been evacuated.
All activities within 3 km of the dome have been prohibited since authorities raised the alert status of the volcano to the highest level last year.
Residents living within the red zone had been evacuated, although some had ignored the warning and returned to their villages to work at plantations.
"Some of them recklessly work at their plantations...although the local authorities have banned them from doing so. Economic reason is the main factor for the villagers to work at their plantations," Sutopo said.
The volcano spewed burning ash down its slopes as far as 4.5 km away from the dome and as high as 3 km into the sky at least four times in the afternoon.
"Potential eruptions, followed by the spewing of hot clouds of ash to the east, southeast and south are still likely and can occur anytime," Sutopo said.
The 2,460-meter-high volcano has been active since September 2013. In February 2014, 16 people were killed by an eruption just after evacuated residents had been allowed to return home.
Indonesia sits in one of the most active seismic regions in the world, the Pacific Ring of Fire -- an area in which a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.
