Volcano erupts again, more deaths reported
November 5, 2010 -- Updated 0119 GMT (0919 HKT)
The air is thick with volcanic ash as residents flee on motorcycle in Klaten district, central Java.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- More lives may have been lost in latest eruption
- Reported death toll was already at 44 from previous eruptions
- Mount Merapi has spewed ash almost continuously since midday Wednesday
- Merapi's plume is drifting south over Central Java
A police official put the number even higher, saying that 22 bodies were recovered. The bodies, all of them badly burned, were from a village about 16 kilometers from the volcano, Commissioner Tjiptono of the Yogyakarta police told a local station, TV One.
The death toll already was at 44 before the most recent eruption.
Those affected by the latest eruption lived outside the 15-kilometer evacuation radius that had been established. The danger zone was expanded to 20 kilometers.
Mount Merapi has not stopped erupting since Thursday, the Vulcanology and Geological Disaster Management Office said. A loud explosion Thursday night could be heard 30 kilometers away, and it continues to spew ash clouds.
Sky blanketed with ash by 'Ring of Fire' 
Volcanic activity in Indonesia Earlier, Mount Merapi belched a steady stream of gas and ash, unleashing a pair of powerful eruptions into the morning sky on Thursday.
The hot clouds hovered over central Java, rising up to 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) and then drifting to the south toward Kali Gendol, Kali Kuning, Kali Boyong, Kali Krasak, Kali Bedok, according to the Indonesian Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Disaster Agency.
The plume from Merapi has gone on almost unabated since midday Wednesday, the agency said.
Mount Merapi began erupting on October 26. Nearly 75,000 people have been evacuated, according to Indonesia's National Disaster Management Board.
Residents of a village 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the volcano were ordered to move for safety, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, head of risk disaster reduction.
Residents on the volcano repeatedly fled, but then returned home to check on their houses and farm animals and fled anew with each fresh eruption.
Because of rains, geological officials are warning residents and evacuees not to go to areas within the danger zone or near rivers.
Rainfall can convert volcanic ash to lahar, or mudflow.
There have been reports of mudflow headed down riverbeds on Merapi slopes, and Indonesian authorities are warning of the dangers of lahar with more rains expected on Thursday.
The 3,000-meter (9,800-foot) Merapi is famously unpredictable. An eruption killed two people in 2006 and another killed more than 60 villagers in 1994. About 1,300 people died when Merapi erupted in 1930.
In addition, last week, a 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia's coast, triggering a tsunami and killing at least 449 people. Hundreds more were injured.
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