Looting Reported in Wake of Eruptions
Against a backdrop of thick smoke pouring from two erupted volcanoes, police and soldiers fired warning shots Thursday to deter looters from the disaster zone in Rabaul.
The volcanoes belched millions of tons of rock and ash onto the lush, green port city on the Bismarck Sea, 500 miles northeast of Port Moresby, considered one of the most beautiful spots in the South Pacific. Two deaths were reported.
Late Thursday, an Australian scientist cabled American colleagues that half of the massive Vulcan cone, one of the two erupting peaks, had collapsed into the sea, sending ash, smoke and debris directly over Rabaul and causing widespread destruction.
The scientist, Kevin Vang of Mark McQuarie University in Sydney, said it was the most spectacular explosion yet.
Almost all of Rabaul’s 30,000 residents and people from nearby villages fled Monday when Vulcan and Tavurvur volcanoes erupted.
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