JAKARTA, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- A volcano on an island in Indonesia rained hot ash on to a beach when it erupted Saturday, leaving five people dead. Officials said.
Mount Rokatenda on the tiny island of Palue sent ash and rocks hundreds of feet into the air and apparently caught the three adults and two children in the open.
"Five people were confirmed dead. Three bodies have been found and the rest are being searched," Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman from National Disaster Management Agency, told Indonesia's Bernama news agency. "Now the volcano continues to erupt."
Palue's approximately 3,000 residents were evacuated from the island more than a year ago when Rokatenda, one of some 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, began rumbling. Sutopo said it was not clear why the victims were on the island, although some of the islanders had slipped back into the homes.
Palue is only a few miles wide and located just off the coast of Flores, the main island in Nusa Tenggara province, the BBC said.
