Nearly 50,000 flee amid fears of Mt. Agung eruption

An elderly woman smiles to a baby at the at the Swecapura sports hall in Klungkung, Bali, on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017. The hall has become a shelter for residents living within a 12-kilometer radius of Mount Agung who were told to evacuate in anticipation of an eruption. Local authorities have announced the highest possible alert level of the active volcano following an increase in its volcanic activities. (The Jakarta Post/Anggara Mahendra).

BALI: Nearly 50,000 people have evacuated their homes amid fears of an imminent volcanic eruption on the resort island of Bali, disaster officials said Monday.

Mount Agung, about 75km  from the tourist hub of Kuta, has been rumbling since August, threatening to erupt for the first time in more than 50 years.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said Monday 48,540 people had fled, although the number was expected to rise because more than 60,000 people lived in the danger zone.

"There are still people who don't want to be evacuated,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the BNPB, said at a press conference.

"The reason is firstly, the mountain hasn't erupted yet. Secondly, they are worried about their livestock."

Officials announced the highest possible alert level on Friday following the increasing volcanic activity, and told people to stay at least nine kilometres away from the crater.

A general view shows Mount Agung from Karangasem on the resort island of Bali on Sept. 24, 2017. Authorities have raised alert levels for a volcano on the Indonesian resort island of Bali after hundreds of small tremors stoked fears it could erupt for the first time in more than 50 years. (Agence France -Presse/Sonny Tumbelaka). 

Evacuees have packed into temporary shelters or moved in with relatives.

Some 2,000 cows have been also evacuated from the flanks of the volcano.

Nengah Satiya, who left home with his wife three days ago, said he had been returning to the danger zone to tend to his pigs and chickens.

"There are many livestock in our village but nobody is taking them,” Nengah Satiya told AFP. “We take turns going back to feed them.”

The airport in Denpasar, through which millions of foreign tourists pass every year, has not been affected.

More than 1,000 people died when Mount Agung last erupted in 1963. - Jakarta Post/Asia News Network