He Merapi volcanolocated in the central region of the Indonesian island of Java, has expelled this Saturday a incandescent lava river of about a kilometer and a halfas well as clouds of smoke and ashwhich have caused the alert of the local authorities, although at the moment it has not been necessary to evacuate the population.

“It has been observed a lava eruption that reaches a distance of 1,500 meters to the southwest,” the Center for Geological Disaster Research and Development (BPPTKG, for its Indonesian acronym) said in a statement.

The same note warns the population of nearby towns that avoid activities in danger zones, in a radius of between three and seven kilometers from the crater of the volcano, although it has not yet been considered necessary to evacuate the population. “An explosive eruption could reach a distance of three kilometers from the crater,” he adds.

The Merapi, 2,968 meters high, is located on the border between the special region of Yogyakarta and the province of Central Java. Its about most active volcano in the Asian country and one of the most erupting on the planet and was at the second highest alert level.

Its last major eruption, which occurred in 2010, caused the death of 347 people and forced the evacuation of nearly 400,000, among whom 3,000 families had to be permanently relocated.

The Indonesian archipelago sits within the so-called Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’an area of ​​great seismic and volcanic activity that is shaken by thousands of tremors a year, the majority of small magnitude and in which there are 127 active volcanoes.