Search and rescue teams pulled 31 bodies from one group of houses in Argomulyo on Friday morning but other parts of the village -- some 18 kilometres (11 miles) from the volcano -- were still too hot to enter.

The cloud was followed by a torrent of ash and mud which poured down the dry bed of the Gendol river, smothering homes in a sticky, burning tar.

"I found three bodies: a child, mother and father, still on their bed. They must have been sleeping when the hot ash struck their house," rescuer Utha told AFP as he delivered 10 bodies to a hospital in the city of Yogyakarta.

"Their bodies were badly burnt. We also found a dead man with a phone still on his hand."

Another rescuer, Niko Andrian, loaded his pickup with 10 bodies but counted 20 more still in the ruins of the village, which lies well outside the official danger zone.

"We found most of the bodies on the bank of the river," he said.

Around nine houses had collapsed into the river and smoke rose from the smouldering mud.

"We have to step back as the temperature there is extremely hot. With that temperature, a steel stick would melt," soldier Widodo said.

Elsewhere, witnesses described scenes of chaos and panic as residents scrambled in the pre-dawn darkness to escape what scientists have called the mountain's most violent eruption in a century.

Indonesia's most active volcano killed around 1,300 people in 1930 but even though the total death toll from its latest series of eruptions since October 26 is only about 100, they are considered the biggest since 1872.

"Judging from the material emitted, Merapi's eruption this time is bigger than the 1930 eruption," government volcanologist Subandrio said.

The government no doubt saved many lives when it ordered a general evacuation on October 25.

The evacuation zone has since been expanded twice and was extended to 20 kilometres around the fuming crater on Friday, forcing thousands more from their homes.

More than 100,000 people are crammed into temporary shelters around central Java, waiting for the 2,914-metre (9,616-foot) "Mountain of Fire" to calm down.

Merapi is a sacred landmark in Javanese tradition. One of the first to die on October 26 was the volcano's spiritual guardian, Grandfather Marijan, who refused to evacuate and was killed as he prayed on the mountain's slopes.

earlier related report
Erupting Indonesian volcano kills dozens
Argomulyo, Indonesia (AFP) Nov 5, 2010 - Indonesia's most active volcano rained burning ash on villages outside the official danger zone on Friday, killing at least 54 people and forcing thousands more to flee.

The latest deaths bring the total toll to almost 100 since Mount Merapi started erupting on Java island on October 26, a day after a tsunami killed more than 400 people off Suamtra island to the west.

The mountain's biggest eruption in more than a century spewed ash over a vast area including the Central Java provincial capital of Yogyakarta about 28 kilometres (17 miles) to the south.

"The number of dead bodies we have received is 54," said Banu Hermawan, a spokesman for Sarjito general hospital in Yogyakarta.

"The evacuation process is still ongoing now. We're afraid there'll be more deaths as some locations are still inaccessible due to hot ash and volcanic material."

Many of the dead were children from Argomulyo village, 18 kilometres from the crater, according to emergency response officials and witnesses.

"I found three bodies: a child, mother and father, still on their bed. They must have been sleeping when the hot ash struck their house," rescuer Utha told AFP as he delivered 10 bodies to the hospital.

"We also found a dead man with a phone still on his hand."

Yogyakarta police force medic Teguh Dwi Santosa said: "Argomulyo village has been burned down to the ground by the heat clouds. Many children have died there. When I was in the village the ground was still hot."

A river running through the village also overflowed with a thick mixture of mud and ash, and several bodies lay unclaimed in the debris, witnesses said.

Ash, deadly heat clouds and molten debris gushed from the mouth of the 2,914-metre (9,616-foot) mountain and shot high into the sky for most of the night and into the morning.

There was panic and chaos on the roads as people tried to flee in the darkness, rescue workers said.

The ranks of evacuees swelled past 100,000 people, with 30,000 moved into a sports stadium about 25 kilometres away from the peak.

The international airport at Yogyakarta was closed as ash clouds billowed to the altitude of cruising jetliners and the runway was covered in grey soot.

Government volcanologist Surono said Friday's blasts were the largest yet.

"This is the biggest eruption so far. The explosion was heard as far as 20 kilometres away," he said.

The exclusion zone was widened from 15 to 20 kilometres around the mountain and everyone living in the area was ordered to evacuate their homes and shelters immediately, he said.

Indonesia's transport ministry has told pilots to stay at least 12 kilometres away from the rumbling volcano and several flights linking central Java to Singapore and Malaysia have been cancelled this week.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited people displaced by the volcano on Wednesday as the disaster-prone country struggles to cope with dual natural disasters including the October 25 tsunami.

The three-metre wave smashed into villages on the remote Mentawai island chain following a 7.7-magnitude earthquake off the coast, killing 428 people and leaving 15,000 homeless.

Another 74 people remain missing, feared dead.

Bad weather and poor communications on the undeveloped islands -- a legendary destination for foreign surfers -- have hampered relief operations.

Three New Zealand yachtsmen who had not been heard from since the tsunami turned up safe and sound, their families said Friday.

The Indonesian archipelago has dozens of active volcanoes and straddles major tectonic fault lines from the Indian to the Pacific oceans. The 2004 Asian tsunami killed almost 170,000 people in Indonesia alone.

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