AKIPRESS.COM - Indonesia’s most active volcano Mount Merapi erupted on Tuesday, shooting a massive ash cloud some 6,000m (20,000ft) in the air which coated nearby communities with grey dust and forced an airport closure, Guardian reports.

Ash mixed with sand rained down on towns as far as 10km (six miles) from the belching crater near Indonesia’s cultural capital Yogyakarta.

Indonesia’s volcano agency warned residents to stay out of a 3km no-go zone around Mount Merapi, citing possible danger from flowing lava and pyroclastic flows – a fast-moving mixture of hot gas and volcanic material.

Mount Merapi’s last major eruption in 2010 killed more than 300 people and forced the evacuation of 280,000 residents.

That was Merapi’s most powerful eruption since 1930, which killed around 1,300 people, while another explosion in 1994 claimed about 60 lives.