Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano erupted with clouds of hot gas and rained ash on surrounding areas Monday, sending some nearby villagers who had been reluctant to leave scurrying for safety.

A vulcanologist said the eruption process was in its last stage although he was reluctant to forecast whether the situation would get worse.

Grey ash covered crop fields and hundreds of rooftops in the area of Ketep, 10 kilometers from the base of the mountain, and many houses appeared deserted after residents evacuated.

Not everyone was gone. Some people cleaned ash off their houses and others opened shops. Commercial mini-buses continued to run.

As ash rained down on villages around the mountain in the early morning hours, schoolchildren in uniform had hurried to class, covering their noses and mouths.

The mountain "has exploded already," said the head of the Merapi section at the Center of Vulcanological Research and Technology in Yogyakarta.

He cautioned, however, that Merapi's eruption process could be gradual rather than a sudden burst, and that the massive eruption scientists fear had yet to come.

The top of Merapi was totally obscured by thick grey and white clouds, which trailed down the volcano's slopes.

Ratmono Purbo, the head of the vulcanology center in Yogyakarta, said the hot clouds stretched for 4 kilometers, while as a comparison during an eruption in 1994 they reached 6 kilometers before a deadly rain of material started falling.

"Generally the (lava) dome is still intact but surely it has eroded a little bit," he told reporters Monday.

"For Merapi, this is the last stage", Purbo said. He declined to make specific forecasts about what might happen next or how soon, beyond saying the gravitational pull of the moon could increase activities in the early morning hours.

During the 1994 eruption, most of the 70 deaths were caused by the outpouring of hot ash and other material following the collapse of a lava dome. The volcano killed 1,300 people in 1930.

Indonesia raised the alert status of Merapi on Saturday to the highest level, also known as code red or danger status and moved more than 5,000 people living near the volcano to shelters in safe areas.

Thousands more were leaving Monday, carried in hundreds of trucks and cars.

But Indonesian chief social welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie told reporters that "many residents are still in the dangerous area... about 24,000 people. We urge them to come down."

Lava flows

Merapi, about 450 kilometers east of Jakarta, is one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia, which sits in the Pacific "Ring of Fire."

Describing Monday's activity, villager Mariadi, 25, said: "This morning it was like dusk. The village was quite dark."

"The ashes were pouring in for one hour."

"A lot of us just stayed inside the house" to avoid breathing difficulties and teary eyes outside, Mariadi said.

Shopkeeper Surti, 45, said when she woke up "there was a pile of smoke coming (out of Merapi) and then ash started pouring in." She opened her shop anyway, saying she did not think her village was in serious danger.

Although a witness saw lava flowing from the side of the mountain Monday, that was before the fresh clouds of hot gas and ash spewed from the volcano.

Vulcanologists say as the clouds emerge from the crater their temperature can approach 1,000 C, although the temperature drops rapidly once they hit the open air.

The volcano is in the center of Java, Indonesia's most populated island.

Like the reluctant villagers of Ketep, many on and near its slopes have refused to desert their homes and their livelihoods. Others who have left return during the days to tend livestock, collect grass, or otherwise carry on their daily routines.

Many villagers consider the volcano sacred. Every year, a traditional Javanese priest climbs to the top to make an offering.

Most Javanese, who make up the bulk of Indonesia's 220 million people, are Muslim, but many cling to a spiritual past and believe a supernatural kingdom exists on top of Merapi.

(China Daily May 16, 2006)