Indonesian tsunami kills 108

By K.M. LEW

JAKARTA: At least 108 people have died and more than 500 people are missing on a group of Indonesian islands hit by a tsunami, according to local officials. And the country’s most active volcano Mount Merapi has erupted three times and continued to do so Tuesday night.
      "Our latest data from the crisis centre showed that 108 people have been killed and 502 are still missing," Hendri Dori Satoko, an MP from the Mentawai islands, told MetroTV.
      Most buildings in the coastal village of Betu Monga were destroyed, said Hardimansyah, an official with the regional branch of the Department of Fisheries.
      Hardimansyah, who has only one name, said 80 percent of the houses in the area were damaged and food supplies were low.

     A tourist boat carrying between eight and 10 Australians has been out of radio contact since the quake, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement.

     Elsewhere in the archipelago, a three-month-old baby has died - the first reported fatality from three eruptions by Mount Merapi, Indonesia’s most active volcano. At least 30 people are reported injured.

     "We heard three explosions around 06:00 pm (1100GMT) spewing volcanic material as high as 1.5 kilometres and sending heat clouds down the slopes," government volcanologist Surono told the AFP news agency.

     The eruption is bigger than the 2006 eruption, which killed two people, he said.
      The authorities put an area of 10 kilometres around the crater of on red alert Monday, ordering 19,000 people to flee. But 15,000 of them ignored the order or returned during Tuesday to work and tend cattle.
      Merapi’s deadliest eruption occurred in 1930 when more than 1,300 people were killed. Heat clouds from another eruption in 1994 killed more than 60 people.