Bali volcano: Non-evacuees may be forced to leave area

People who have not left their homes around a rumbling volcano in Bali may be forcibly evicted, Indonesian authorities have said.

Tens of thousands of people stayed put near Mount Agung after an alert was raised to its highest level, BBC reported on Monday.

Some still felt safe while others did not want to leave livestock.

A spokesman for the country's National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said people were checking the exclusion zone for non-evacuees.

"There are personnel doing the sweeping, if they (residents) need to be forcibly evacuated," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

The island's airport has now closed, leaving thousands stranded in the tourist hotspot.

Up to 100,000 people live in the area that could potentially be affected by streams of burning rock have been spotted flowing down from the mountain. But by Monday only 40,000 had left.

Mount Agung's volcanic tremors first began in September.

Since last week dark gas and ash have been billowing up to 3,400m (11,150 ft) above the mountain's summit.

The BNPB raised the alert to level four because of an "imminent risk of disaster".

The volcano is emitting "continuous ash puffs" with occasional "explosive eruptions" that could be heard 12 km from the summit.

"The rays of fire are increasingly observed at night. This indicates the potential for a larger eruption is imminent," it said in a statement (in Indonesian) on its Facebook page.

Geologist Mark Tingay of the University of Adelaide told the BBC that eruptions were difficult to predict and it was "very hard to tell" exactly how the situation would develop.

He added that Indonesian authorities appeared "extremely well prepared", with the situation "well under control".

Authorities have widened the exclusion zone to a 10 km radius, and have ordered people in the area to evacuate.

Sutopo said some people within the exclusion zone did not leave because the area was not touched during the last eruption, more than 50 years ago.

--IANS

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