High alert as Mount Merapi erupts after tsunami hits islands

Indonesia's most active volcano - Mount Merapi - erupted yesterday claiming the life of a two-month-old baby who died when panicking villagers fled.

As they contended with the volcano, Indonesian officials were also trying to assess the impact of Monday's 7.7-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, about 800 miles from Merapi. The tremor caused a tsunami that left at least 113 dead on a string of islands.

Last night scientists warned that pressure building beneath the volcano could trigger the most powerful blast in years, after a series of eruptions which have claimed an estimated 19 lives so far.

Smoke poured out of the volcano obscuring its top. Up to 20 people were injured by the hot ash spewing forth, with one burns victim's skin coated in the grey powder, which also blanketed cars and trucks.

Some 11,400 villagers who live on the 9,737ft mountain were urged to evacuate, but only those within four miles were forced to do so. Most of those who fled were the elderly and children. Some adults said they decided to stay to tend to homes and farms on the fertile slopes. There are fears the current activity could foreshadow a much more destructive blast in the coming weeks or months, though it is possible, too, that the volcano will settle back down.

Local TV reported that the baby died when a mother ran in panic after Merapi erupted. It cited a local doctor and showed the mother weeping as the baby was covered with a white blanket at a hospital.

The chief vulcanologist in the area, Subandriyo, said the eruption started just before dusk on Tuesday. The volcano had rumbled and groaned for hours.

"There was a thunderous rumble that went on for ages, maybe 15 minutes," said Sukamto, a farmer who by nightfall had yet to abandon his home on the slopes. "Then huge plumes of hot ash started shooting into the air."

Merapi, or the Mountain of Fire, lies on the main island of Java, some 310 miles southeast of capital Jakarta. Scientists say the risk of a big eruption is now at its highest. "The energy is building up …We hope it will release slowly," a government volcanologist said. "Otherwise, we're looking at a potentially huge eruption, bigger than anything we've seen in years."

In 2006, an avalanche of blistering gases and rock fragments raced down the volcano and killed two people. A similar eruption in 1994 killed 60, and 1,300 died in a 1930 blast.

The Indonesian archipelago is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity due to its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire - a series of fault lines stretching through Japan and Southeast Asia.

There are more than 129 active volcanos in Indonesia, which is spread across 17,500 islands.