Merapi volcano erupts with gas and ash

Gray ash covered crop fields and hundreds of rooftops in the area of Ketep, 10km from the base of the mountain, and many houses appeared deserted after residents evacuated.

Not everyone was gone. Some people cleaned ash off their houses and others opened shops, while commercial mini-buses continued to run.

As ash rained down on villages around the mountain in the early morning hours, schoolchildren in uniform had hurried to class, covering their noses and mouths.

The mountain "has exploded already," the head of the Merapi section at the Centre of Vulcanological Research and Technology in Yogyakarta told Reuters.