Mount Merapi still belches volcanic ash

Indonesia's most active volcano Mount Merapi was shooting clouds of ash high into the sky on Thursday after a series of major eruptions, and an alert status remains in force, an official said.

"Merapi's intensity has slowed down, but small eruptions still occur and its status is still alert," government volcanologist Raden Sukhyar said.

"The volcano still belches volcanic ash. It just shot ash up to 1,000 metres high at 6:00 am today (2300 GMT Wednesday), but the ash had no potential to reach anywhere other than the slope of Merapi," he said, AFP reports.

Many lives were saved after authorities ordered thousands of residents to leave a 6-mile (10-km) danger zone, after raising the threat level for the volcano to red, the highest possible.

Located 310 miles (500 kms) south-east of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, the 2,914-metre-high (9,616-foot-high) Mount Merapi, is the most active of the 69 dangerous volcanoes (of the 130 active) with histories of eruptions, RTTNews informs.