Indonesian volcano sends thousands fleeing

Volcanic ash from a major eruption in Indonesia has shrouded a large swathe of Java, the country's most densely populated island, closed three international airports and sent thousands fleeing.

The alert status for Mount Kelud, considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes on the island, was raised late on Thursday just hours before it began erupting, the AFP news agency reported.

National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that about 200,000 people from 36 villages in a 10km area around Kelud, in Kediri district in eastern Java, were being asked to evacuate.

"A rain of ash, sand and rocks is reaching up to 15km" from the volcano's crater, he said. "Sparks of light can be continuously seen at the peak."

Television pictures showed ash and rocks raining down on nearby villages as terrified locals fled in cars and on motorbikes towards evacuation centres.

Booms from the mountain could be heard 130km away in Surabaya, the country's second-largest city, and even further afield in Jogyakarta.

Transport ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said Jogyakarta, Solo and Surabaya airports were closed due to reduced visibility and the dangers posed to aircraft engines by ash.

There were no immediate reports of injuries as a result of the eruption, the AP news agency reported.

The mountain had been rumbling for several weeks.

The 1,731 metre Mount Kelud has claimed more than 15,000 lives since 1500, including around 10,000 deaths in a massive 1568 eruption.

The last major eruption was in 1990, when it kicked out searing fumes and lava that killed more than 30 people and injured hundreds.

In 1919, a powerful explosion that reportedly could be heard hundreds of miles away killed at least 5,160.

It is one of some 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a belt of seismic activity running around the basin of the Pacific Ocean.

Earlier this month another volcano, Mount Sinabung on western Sumatra island, unleashed an enormous eruption, leaving at least 16 people dead.

Sinabung has been erupting on an almost daily basis since September, coating villages and crops with volcanic ash and forcing tens of thousands out of their homes.