(REPORT) Death toll reaches triple digits as Indonesia's Mt. Merapi continues to erupt

(Video via RT News)

(HN, November 5, 2010) -- Blistering gas from Mt. Merapi, Indonesia’s most volatile volcano spewed further than expected Friday. The eruption, which began on Thursday night, pushed the death tolls from the eruptions that began October 26th to the triple digits and burned villages up to nine miles from the crater.

This latest eruption has continued nonstop and the stream of ash spewing from the volcano has darkened the sky over nearby Jogjakarta and the ash is has turned the Gendol River grey from the debris. All flights to the city have been cancelled.

Nearly 90,000 people are in need of shelter since the eruptions first began 10 days ago.

Merapi has erupted four times in the past decade, but he last time the volcano took such a toll was in 1930, when 1,300 people were killed. Until Friday, most of the fatalities had been from the initial blast on October 26.

The scale of the latest eruption has prompted President Yudhoyono to transfer responsibility for the response from local agencies to the national disaster agency, as well as ordering the addition of more police and soldiers.

--- HUMNews Staff