Related: Indonesia's Merapi volcano erupts

Special Report: Earthquake in Indonesia

    By Heru Andriyanto

    MAGELANG, Indonesia, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government denied media reports Thursday that the Merapi volcano in Central Java has erupted, while thousands of villagers on its slope continued to flee the volcano, this time without hesitation.

    "Merapi has not erupted yet. What is happening there is increasing volcanic activities as shown by gas clouds and lava, like what we have been witnessing over the last one month," Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie said at a news conference in Jakarta.

    However, Bakrie said residents within a 7-km radius of the crater should leave immediately and unconditionally.

    Metro TV reported earlier the "eruption" occurred at 09:05 a.m.(02:05 GMT) with a thunderous sound, followed by lava flowing into nearest rivers and gas clouds mushrooming from the crater.

    Reports from the volcano monitoring office in Yogyakarta said gas clouds with a temperature of 175 Celsius degree flew down as far as 5 km, the longest range since Merapi was placed in the highest alert status on May 15.

    The clouds burned forest trees and crops grown by villagers.

     "For me, that was an eruption," said Wiryo Sumarto, who has been living on the Merapi slope since he was born 68 years ago.

    He decided to flee home in Jrakah village, only 8 km below Merapi's top, and arrived at the nearest refugee camp in Magelang,Central Java province, west of the volcano.

    His extended family of 10 shares a tent at the camp, which accommodates 1,387 refugees altogether.

    "The clouds rolled down in waves and really terrified me," he told Xinhua.

    He recalled an eruption in 1968, when a village next to his was entirely buried with lava. Luckily, all residents managed to escape.

    "We could see lava flowing down in a distance and that gave us enough time to flee. What we are afraid of most is hot clouds and toxic gas," he said. When Merapi last erupted in 1994, gas clouds killed 64 people on its southern slope in Yogyakarta province.

    There is an estimate of 30,000 villagers living in dangerous areas in Yogyakarta and Central Java.

    When the government declared an alert in May, most of them were reluctant to leave, worrying that their belongings and cattle would be stolen.

    But on Tuesday morning, residents were running in panic and loaded into trucks their belongings for evacuation.

    The government and the Indonesian Red Cross have set up refugee camps since May.

    Widoyo, 36, spent 10 days at a refugee camp with his family in May to follow the order from the government but returned home as no serious incidents happened.

    On Thursday, he arrived back at the camp on his own will.

    "Merapi appeared more dangerous this morning, so we fled without wasting time," he said.

    House roofs turned white in minutes covered by volcanic ash, which also poured down in towns surrounding the 2,968-meter volcano.

    But the question remains over whether Merapi has erupted.

    "People are expecting a huge explosion to confirm an eruption. But that's not the nature of Merapi," Subagyo Pranuwijoyo, a geologist in Yogyakarta, said in a television interview.

    "When Merapi erupts, it spews lava and hot clouds in large volume. It was always like that in the past," he said.

    Suparkah, another geologist in the Indonesia Science Institute (LIPI), said the volcanic activities already reached its peak Thursday morning.

    "Merapi has unleashed its energy, and there is nothing left," he was quoted by the Detikcom news website as saying. Enditem