Carita”•Indonesia on Thursday raised the danger alert level for an erupting volcano that sparked a killer tsunami at the weekend, after previously warning that fresh activity at the crater threatened to trigger another deadly wave.
Authorities also widened a no-go zone around rumbling Anak Krakatoa to five kilometers—up from a previous two kilometers—and warned shell-shocked residents to stay away from the coast, after more than 400 were killed by Saturday night’s killer wave.
Plumes of ash burst into the sky as pyroclastic flows — hot gas and other volcanic material — flowed down the crater, threatening anyone too close to the volcano and raising the risk of rough seas for boats in the vicinity.
“There is a danger of more eruptions,” said national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
“People [near the volcano] could be hit by hot rocks, pyroclastic flows, and thick ash.”
Authorities raised the crater’s status to high alert, the second-highest warning on the country’s four-point danger scale, while aviation officials ordered flights to be redirected away from the area.
