CAIRO, April 13, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - At least 25,000 people fled the slopes of Mount Talang on Sumatra island after a second Indonesian volcano sprang to life following a series of terrifying quakes, raising fears the archipelago’s violent geological forces will unleash a new disaster.

Mount Tangkuban Perahu in West Java is becoming more active, prompting the Directorate of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation on Wednesday, April 13, to raise an alert, forbidding visitors from going up the volcano, the Jakarta Post reported Wednesday, 13.

A day earlier, more than 20,000 people fled the slopes of Mount Talang on Sumatra island, as the peak spewed hot ash after being unsettled by huge tremors from the same fault line that caused last year’s deadly tsunami.

The mountain, located 26 kilometres to the north of Bandung, began showing increased volcanic activities Tuesday, April 12, Surono, a Vulcanology and geological disaster mitigation official, told the paper.

He explained that his agency had recorded many quakes so that it decided to raise the status to alert and declared the area off-limits.

The 2,084-meter-high mountain constitutes the province’s main tourist destination, where visitors can drive near the crater.

Mount Talang in West Sumatra also began spewing ash, sparking fears among residents in the wake of recent earthquakes and a tsunami.

The volcano, located 40 kilometres east of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province, erupted at 3:40 a.m. local time Tuesday, and spewed ash, thereby prompting thousands of residents to evacuate.

A strong 6.7 aftershock felt in the Sumatra coast city of Padang late Sunday, April 10, prompted a similar evacuation, leaving many markets, schools and office buildings deserted. Another 5.3 tremor rattled the city Wednesday.

Sumatra is still struggling to cope after December’s deadly earthquake and tsunami, which killed more than 120,000 people in the province of Aceh.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, said more than 236,002 people have been confirmed dead or missing in the tidal waves triggered by a 9.0 magnitude underwater earthquake last December 26 – the world’s biggest earthquake in 40 years.

Villagers in Bukit Sileh village evacuate by a truck.

“This is the second Indonesian volcano to sprang to life after a series of terrifying quakes, intensifying fears that the archipelago’s violent geological forces will unleash a new disaster,” the Independent Online (IOL), reported Wednesday.

The Java Island, which began rumbling overnight, prompts scientists to raise the alarm and declare the summit around the open crater off limits, the Web site added.

“There is possibility that poisonous gas may come out,” Surono said, adding that the volcano’s alert status had been raised from “alert” to “prepare”.

There was new panic Wednesday as a volcanic earthquake struck Talang at 10 a.m., causing many to rush out of the buildings, mosques and schools they have been sheltering in since evacuating their villages, IOL said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has called an emergency summit of regional governors to discuss volcanoes, was due to visit Talang Wednesday to try to calm some of people who have abandoned their homes.

Ring of Fire

Indonesia has more than 130 active volcanoes and endures daily seismic jolts attributed to the Pacific “ring of fire” -- restless fissures in the earth’s crust which cause seismic activity from Japan to the Indian Ocean, IOL website said.

But nerves have been sorely tested by two recent giant quakes, among the largest recorded in the past century, which have claimed thousands of lives and generated intense speculation over an impending third disaster.

Thousands of people on the islands have refused to leave temporary hilltop camps, with forecasts by scientists of a third impending disaster fuelling rumours that a quake and tsunami could strike at any time.

Syamsurizal, a geologist at Indonesia’s vulcanology headquarters in Bandung, said that since an outburst early Tuesday, there had been several smaller explosions and ash emissions, but no signs of an impending major eruption.

Quite High

Talang has had at least four major eruptions, all in the 19th century, and three smaller eruptions in 1981, 2001 and 2003.

By evening, some 12,000 people from nine villages at the foot of the volcano had massed at evacuation points at village halls, and schools, which had been ordered closed.

Mas Ace Purbawinata, a senior geologist deployed to Talang, told ElShinta radio that the volcano appeared to be calming down, but the tremors indicated that molten lava was trying to force through the Earth's crust.