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Posted: 2017-07-03 04:26:10

Updated July 03, 2017 19:36:49

Officials in Indonesia have confirmed eight people were killed when a helicopter crashed while heading to help residents near an erupting volcano.

The Dieng volcano in central Java, which is popular with tourists, erupted on Sunday morning and reportedly injured at least 10 locals.

The rescue helicopter crashed into a nearby cliff on Butak Mountain in the Temanggung district, killing all those on board.

Major General Heronimus Guru, deputy operations chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency, said the bodies of the eight victims were taken to the nearby Bhayangkara Hospital in the Central Java provincial capital of Semarang.

The victims were four navy officers and four rescuers, the director of operations and training at the search agency, Brigadier General Ivan Tito, told local TV.

He also said the Indonesian-made Dauphin AS365 helicopter was airworthy.

The Sileri Crater at Dieng Plateau spewed cold lava, mud and ash as high as 50 metres into the sky when it erupted, National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

The sudden eruption occurred while about 17 visitors were around the crater.

Sileri is the most active and dangerous among some 10 craters at Dieng Plateau. Its most recent eruption was in 2009, when it unleashed volcanic materials up to 200 metres high and triggered the creation of three new craters.

Some 142 people were reportedly asphyxiated in 1979 when the volcano spewed gases.

ABC/AP

Topics: accidents, disasters-and-accidents, indonesia, asia

First posted July 03, 2017 14:26:10

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