Highest travel alert issued as Australians are warned to stay away from Bali

Highest travel alert issued as Australians are warned to stay away from Bali because Mount Agung volcano could erupt at any minute - as 30,000 villagers flee
• Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs issued a travel warning for Indonesia
• A volcanic eruption could affect flights in the region as tourists travel to Bali
• Tourists going to Bali for school holidays warned to stay safe and confirm plans
• Indonesian authorities raised alert for the Mount Agung volcano to highest level
• It was the third time in little more than a week that the alert level was raised
• Officials say 30,000 evacuees staying in shelters sports centers and village halls
•
Daily Mail, 09:04 +10:00, 23 September 2017

The Department of Foreign Affairs has updated a travel warning for Indonesia, saying a volcanic eruption on Bali could cause flight chaos across the region.
Indonesia raised the alert level for the Mount Agung volcano to the highest level, and Australians are being warned to monitor local media and follow the instructions of authorities.
Australians travelling to Bali for the weekend or school holidays are urged to stay away from the crater and make contingency plans.

'Contact your airline or tour operator to confirm travel plans,' said DFAT, with flights likely to be cancelled if the volcano erupts.

Locals said monkeys and snakes were spotting coming down the mountain and entering residential areas, Coconuts Bali reported.
Sogra Village elder and Balinese priest Wayan Sukra said the animals had been on the move for three days.

'Maybe because it’s hot on Mt. Agung. So the animals are exiting and coming to settled areas,' he said.
Mr Sukra said a similar phenomenon took place during the 1963 eruption.

Up to 30,000 villagers have left their homes around the mountain, officials said on Friday, after smoke was seen rising from the summit.

Travellers were reporting cancelled flights to Denpasar on Saturday morning as airlines reacted to the latest warning.
One Twitter user posted from Ubud, in the uplands of Bali, saying locals are 'spooked'.

It was the third time in little more than a week that the alert level was raised. The Department of Meteorology, Climate and Geophysics said there has been a 'tremendous increase' in the mountain's seismic activity, indicating a greater probability of an eruption.

Waskita Sutadewa, spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency in Karangasem district around Mount Agung, said nearly 11,300 villagers have been officially evacuated but admitted the real number of displaced might be two or three times that, since many have fled voluntarily.

The agency says evacuees are staying in temporary shelters, sports centers, village halls and with relatives.
'Tremors happen very often, so we are afraid and I have taken all my family members to the refugee shelter,' said villager I Wayan Suwarjana.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said no residents or tourists should be within 9 kilometres of the crater and within 12 kilometres to the north, northeast, southeast and south-southwest.

The 3,031-metre Agung last erupted in 1963, killing about 1,100 people and hurling ash as high as 10 kilometres.


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