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Medan, N Sumatra (ANTARA News) - Two people in Karo district, North Sumatra, were killed in the eruption of Mount Sinabung on Sunday morning, an official said.

"The two died of a heart attack," chief of the North Sumatra operations center Aiman Syafruddin said here on Sunday.

He said the two were Nartari Beru Ginting (65) and Nimaken Surbakti (54). Aiman said dense traffic also had some other accidents during the eruption.

Aiman added he had sent out 300 people to evacuate the people in Karo district especially those living near the mountain. The police also provided trucks to take people to safer places.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Red Cross stated that about 12 residents living near Mount Sinabung which erupted at 0:15 am local time on Sunday have been evacuated to safer places.

"According to temporary data collected by the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), a total of 12 thousand people from 14 villages in three sub districts have been evacuated,"

Muhammad Irsal, a member of PMI`s disaster mitigation task force, said by phone here on Sunday.

He said that locations affected by the eruption included Bekerah, Simacan, Suka Nalau, Sigaranggarang, Kota Gunung, Kuta Rakyat and Kota Bayakan villages in
Namanparang sub district; Sukameria and Selandi villages in Payung sub district; and Mardinding, Kutambaru and Terdaji villages in Payung sub district.

"We felt strong tremors last night. It was a volcanic quake. After that, the crater of Mount Sinabung spewed glowing heat lava. And trees in the mount slopes were burnt, following thick clouds that caused visibility to be only five meters. We soon helped locals to evacuate to safer locations," Irsal said.

He said that on Saturday night, PMI had distributed some 500 masks before it sent three personnel from North Sumatra and one ambulance car to carry out mobile monitoring around the locations.

Mount Sinabung (2,460 meters above sea level) in Tanah Karo district, North Sumatra province, erupted early Sunday at about 00:00 Western Indonesia Standard time.

People living near the mountain have been evacuated to the district town of Kabanjahe along with their belongings, Sukanalu village chief, Naman Sub-District, Paten Sitepu said.(*)
 

Editor: Ruslan Burhani
COPYRIGHT © 2012

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