Jakarta - Indonesian health officials have warned villagers living on the slopes of rumbling Mount Merapi to be on the lookout for rats escaping the rising heat of the volcano, a report said Wednesday.
Health officials fear that as Merapi heats up, the rats could swarm down the volcano spreading disease, according to a report in the Koran Tempo.
The 2 914m volcano has been on standby alert for more than a week, one level below that which would require a mandatory evacuation for more than 29 000 people living around its fertile slopes.
"We ask all residents to quickly report to us if they find any rats that have died suddenly," Syamsudin, the head of the local health department in Boyalali, which covers Mount Merapi, was quoted as saying.
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Dead rats would indicate that they may be carrying disease, the report said. The rat caution comes after scientists warned that the deadliest threat from an erupting Merapi may be super-hot heat clouds, known locally as "shaggy goats", which would rush down the mountain burning everything in their path.
The heat clouds - high-density mixtures of hot, dry rock fragments and gases that move away from the vent that spews them at high speeds - can reach 600°C and move at more than 100km/h an hour.
Merapi's last eruption in 1994 emitted heat clouds that travelled about 7,5km down the slope of the volcano, killing more than 60 people and forcing the evacuation of 6 000 others. - Sapa-AFP
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