Indonesia volcano erupts, killing 25

At least 25 people were killed when Indonesia's most volatile volcano started erupting Tuesday, according to doctors and television reports.

Scientists have warned that pressure building beneath Mount Merapi's lava dome could trigger its most powerful eruption in years.

Hospital officials said a baby died from respiratory problems and three villagers died from serious burns when the volcano on the island of Java began erupting.

Fourteen other bodies were found in several houses on the mountainside, according to a media report that cited an official at the scene. Metro TV showed footage of corpses being carried to waiting vehicles.

Subandriyo, chief vulcanologist in the area, said Mount Merapi started to erupt just before dusk Tuesday. It had rumbled and groaned for hours.

"There was a thunderous rumble that went on for ages, maybe 15 minutes," said Sukamto, a farmer who by nightfall had yet to abandon his home on the mountain's fertile slopes. "Then huge plumes of hot ash started shooting up into the air."

Government vulcanologist Surono said energy is building up in the volcano, and officials hope it will release slowly.

"Otherwise we're looking at a potentially huge eruption, bigger than anything we've seen in years."

High alert

The alert level for the 2,968-metre mountain has been raised to its highest level.

Some 11,400 villagers on the mountain were urged to leave the area. But most who fled were the elderly and children, while adults stayed to tend to homes and farms on the mountain's slopes.

In 2006, an avalanche of blistering gases and rock fragments raced down the volcano and killed two people. A similar eruption in 1994 killed 60 people, and 1,300 people died in a 1930 blast.

Indonesian officials were also trying to assess the impact of a 7.7-magnitude earthquake late Monday that caused a three-metre tsunami off the coast of Sumatra, leaving at least 113 people dead and scores more missing on a string of remote islands.

Indonesia is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because of its location on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire — a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.

There are more than 129 active volcanoes to watch in Indonesia, which is spread across 17,500 islands.