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Indonesia volcanic eruption kills 2, forces 200,000 to evacuate

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A volcanic eruption on Indonesia’s densely populated island of Java left at least two dead and prompted authorities to order more than 200,000 people to evacuate and close three airports, local media reported Friday.

The fatalities were an 88yearold who was killed when a shelter in Malang, East Java, collapsed under the weight of collected ash and a 70yearold who died from respiratory complications, the Jakarta Globe said.

The Okezona news portal said another elderly Indonesian was in critical condition.

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President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Friday he would visit the affected area within two or three days, saying he needed to allow time for onsite disaster mitigation work.

Authorities had ordered area inhabitants to evacuate the day before the late Thursday night eruption of Mount Kelud after raising the volcanic alert to its highest level, the spokesman for the national disaster management agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, told the Jakarta Post.

Mount Kelud, located in East Java’s Kediri district, is considered one of the island’s most dangerous volcanoes because 36 settlements are located on the mountainside and within a radius of up to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the crater.

The Jogyakarta, Solo and Surabaya international airports were closed because the ash spewed by the 1,731meterhigh (5,680foothigh) volcano was deemed a threat to flight safety.

Mount Kelud’s deadliest eruption occurred in 1568, when rivers of lava and ash clouds and rocks killed roughly 10,000 people.

Indonesia is part of the Pacific Rim’s “Ring of Fire,” a region of frequent quakes and volcano eruptions that accounts for about 85 percent of the world’s seismic activity.