T

housands of people living in the dangerous zone around Mount Sinabung in the Karo regency of North Sumatra were evacuated on Wednesday as the alert status of the volcano has been increased to the highest level.

Commander of the Mount Sinabung Disaster Mitigation Agency task force, Lt. Col. Asep Sukarna, said that the people within a radius of seven kilometers from the crater were evacuated to a temporary evacuation center at the Parish Catholic Church in Kabanjahe, the regency'€™s capital.

'€œUntil this afternoon the evacuation is still going on,'€ Asep told The Jakarta Post, Wednesday, estimating that 1,500 residents had been evacuated.

Asep, who is also commander of Military District Command 0205 Karo, said that 600 joint personnel from the military, the police and the regency administration and 12 trucks had been deployed to evacuate the people since 3 p.m. local time.

Based on a recommendation from the volcanology agency, Asep said, residents in nine subdistricts had to be evacuated.

Yet, he added, the evacuation was focused on the subdistricts of Gurukinayan, Sibintun, Pintu Besi and Tiga Pancur.

Residents of Gurukinayan and Sibintun were once evacuated during previous eruptions and had recently returned home as Sinabung showed decreasing activity. Those of Pintu Besi and Tiga Pancur, on the other hand, have never experienced an evacuation.

Head of Mt. Sinabung Observation Post, Armen Putra, said that the alert status of the volcano had been officially increased from Siaga (second highest) to Awas (highest) since 11 p.m. on Tuesday.

Armen said the increase was made based on signs of possible big eruptions, which could spew pyroclastic flows in a seven kilometer radius around the volcano. The signs include the huge mass of lava at the peak of Sinabung'€™s crater.

'€œThe pile of lava amounts to three million cubic meters. If it erupts, the dome can slide down as far as seven kilometers,'€ Armen told the Post, Wednesday.

Avalanches of hot lava, Armen said, had also been more frequently occurring. If on Sunday avalanches of hot lava occurred only 100 times, they increased to 150 times the following day.

Armen also said that his side had sent a letter to the Karo regency administration to recommend the evacuation of people residing in the nine subdistricts of Sukameriah, Bekerah, Simacem, Berastepu, Gamber, Gurukinayan, Kuta Tengah, Tiga Pancur and Pintu Besi.

Karo regent Terkelin Brahmana confirmed this statement, saying that a meeting with the local military and police was promptly held to follow up on the recommendation.

'€œThe meeting [committee] decided that the evacuation starts today. We want to act quickly before Sinabung erupts,'€ Terkelin said after the meeting on Wednesday.

He said he had coordinated with other stakeholders to prepare for strategic steps to deal with the evacuation.

'€œThis is not the first evacuation we ever conducted. We have evacuated people several times since the eruptions of Sinabung in 2010. We are prepared,'€ Terkelin said.

Head of Gurukinayan subdistrict Pelin Sembiring said that hundreds of his people remained in the subdistrict to farm, but they were willing to evacuate because it was for their own safety.