Indonesia raises threat level of volcano

The Indonesian authority on Sunday stepped up the emergency alert status of Mount Raung volcano in East Java and warned tourists and climbers to stay away from the radius of 2 km from the volcano as seismic activity rumps up, an official said here. "We recommended visitors or climbers not to enter the radius of 2 km from the crater," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the national disaster management and mitigation agency, told Xinhua via the phone. The spokesman said that the national volcanology agency had lifted the alert status from normal to cautious as they have monitored a hike of tremor intensity and changes in the blow and color of ashes to white-brownish since Saturday. Mount Raung located in Jember district is one of 129 active volcanoes in the vast archipelago country, which is prone to seismic upheaval as it lays on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" encircling the Pacific Ocean. The alert level lifting follows Mount Sinabung volcano in Karo district of North Sumatra in western Indonesia which has kept eruption since Saturday. So far, at least 77 eruptions have occurred with 20,331 people displaced, Sutopo said.