Rescuers were ready to rescue villagers near Mount Karangetan volcano in Indonesia’s North Sulawesi province through sea if the volcano spewed more hot lava, a senior official said on Tuesday.
Head of Search and Rescue Office for Manado, the provincial capital, Amirruddin said that over 110 villagers from five villages have been evacuated so far as hot lava and volcanic rocks slid downward to the villages and a road.
“Now about 30 of our personnel are at the scene, helping evacuate the people. We have deployed two rubber boats and two other boats,” he told Xinhua.
Amiruddin said his office was monitoring the situation, including the spread of hot lava.
“When the level of danger is declared emergency, we immediately move with the ships, and with all of our strength rescue the people through sea,” he said referring to the coastal villages.
Five villages in Siau Barat sub-district of Sitaro district are vulnerable to the flows of hot lava and rains of volcanic ash, according to him.
The National Disaster Management Agency said hot lava and volcanic rocks have slid down from Mount Karangetan volcano, only 300 meters away from villages, and 200 meters from a road, spokesman of the agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.
On Dec. 21, volcanologists raised the alert status of Mount Karangetan to the second highest after the volcano erupted.
Mount Karangetan is one of the 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, a vast archipelagic nation home to over 17,500 islands.(UNI)