Scientists are worried that the worst might be yet to come from Indonesia's Mount Meriapi as towering clouds of hot ash gushed from the mouth of the volcano today, hours after its most explosive eruption in a deadly week sent screaming women and children fleeing mountainside villages and emergency shelters.
Surono, a state volcanologist, who had said earlier that continual eruptions since October 26 appeared to be easing pressure behind Mount Merapi's magma dome near the tip of the crater. "It looks like we may be entering an even worse stage," said: "We have no idea what's happening now."
As rocks and debris rained from the sky late yesterday, soldiers forced villagers into trucks and carried them down the rumbling mountain. Several abandoned homes were set on fire and dozens of carcasses of incinerated cattle littered the scorched flanks.
No new casualties were reported after that fiery blast or a pre-dawn eruption Thursday, which spewed searing clouds of gas and ash nearly six kilometres into the air.
Residents in towns up to 240 kilometres away said trees, cars and roads were blanketed in heavy gray ash.
Mount Merapi, which means "Fire Mountain," has erupted many times in the past century, often with deadly results.
Forty people have died since it burst back to life just over a week ago. In 1994, 60 people were killed, while in 1930, more than a dozen villages were set ablaze, leaving up to 1,300 dead.
As with other volcanoes in this seismically charged country, tens of thousands call its fertile slopes home. More than 70,000 are now packed in crowded government camps well away from the base.
Djarot Nugroho, a disaster management agency official, said funds to buy instant noodles, clean water and other supplies for the refugees could run out within days unless the government declared a national disaster, bringing in much-needed federal funds.
There have been more than a dozen strong eruptions at Merapi in the past week and thousands of volcanic tremors and ash bursts, prompting officials to close some air routes above the mountain.
It appeared unlikely, however, that the Qantas plane forced to make an emergency landing after one of its four engines failed while flying over the island of Batam, 1,400 kilometres away was tied to the smouldering mountain.
The danger zone was widened from 10 to 15 kilometres from the peak, meanwhile, because of the heightened threat.
Tentrem Wahono, 50, who fled with his family on a motorbike from their village of Kaliurang, about 10 kilometres from the crater, said: "We were racing with the explosive sounds as the searing ash chased us from behind."
Soldiers and police blocked all roads leading up the 3,000-metre mountain, chasing away curious onlookers and television crews and reporters.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950