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Villagers burned incense and floated offerings to the spirits, hoping to ward off an eruption of Mount Merapi, but volcanic activity intensified on Monday to its highest level yet - with one blast sending debris more than two miles down the slope.

Ash rain cover villages at the slopes of Mount Merapi volcano as seen from Ketep village, near the Indonesian city of Muntilan May 15, 2006. Indonesia raised the alert status of Merapi to the highest level, also known as code red or danger status, on Saturday, although experts said they could not predict when it would erupt. [Reuters]

A scientist warned on Sunday that a growing lava dome could collapse. On Monday, as activity increased, villagers who had not left were told to stand by for possible evacuation and waited in groups by the side of the road on the slopes of the volcano.

"I am panicking this time," said Katimi, a mother of three who had taken refuge in a mosque earmarked as an evacuation point. "Merapi appears angry."

One of the eruptions sent an avalanche of debris and ash rolling almost 2 1/2 miles down the mountain's western flank, said Ratdomopurbo, the region's chief vulcanologist. It was followed by several other huge explosions on the crater.

Despite a government evacuation order, many farmers were in the fields to tend animals and crops on the volcano's fertile slopes, ignoring black clouds billowing into the sky and fresh scars scorched by lava flows on the mountain's western flank.

Hot lava flows from the Mount Merapi volcano close to Kaliadem village near the city of Yogyakarta, central Java May 14, 2006. Dozens of Indonesian villagers returned to their homes on the slopes of Mount Merapi briefly on Sunday despite an official order to evacuate over concerns the dangerous volcano could soon erupt. [Reuters]

 

"I cannot force them," said Widi Sutikno, the official coordinating the government's emergency operation. "All I can do is tell them to keep looking up at the mountain and have a motorbike ready."

More than 4,500 people living in villages closest to the crater or next to rivers that could provide paths for hot lava had been evacuated by Sunday, a day after scientists raised the alert status for Merapi to the highest warning after weeks of volcanic activity.

Sutikno said 18,000 others who live lower down the slopes were not considered in immediate danger and had not been ordered to leave their homes on the 9,800-foot mountain that rises from the plains of Indonesia's densely populated Java Island.

Indonesia's Merapi volcano releases a huge cloud of hot gas as seen from the Kali Adem village, near Indonesia city of Yogyakarta May 15, 2006. Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano spewed lava and hot ash early on Monday, a regional official said, but a volcanologist said he had no confirmation of the report.  [Reuters]

In one of the villages in the shadow of Merapi, holy men and hundreds of people lit incense and set rice, fruit and vegetables floating down a river in a ceremony they believed would appease the spirits and prevent an eruption.

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