Java volcano spews clouds of gas

Some villagers had only just returned from refugee camps

Indonesia's Mt Merapi volcano showed signs of increased activity on Wednesday, emitting cascading clouds of hot gas, ash and volcanic debris.

Hundreds of villagers, some of whom had only just returned from refugee camps, fled their homes on Merapi's slopes.

Indonesian authorities again raised the volcano's alert level to its highest status, only a day after it was dropped.

It will mean thousands have to be evacuated, a government scientist said.

"The status was upgraded at 2 p.m. because of the increasing hot clouds," Triyani, an official at the state volcano monitoring centre, told Reuters news agency.

The clouds of gas and ash travelled about 5 km (3 miles) down the volcano's southern slope, she said.

'Time to leave'

Some residents, thousands of whom have been staying in temporary camps, had returned home after the alert level was dropped on Tuesday.

Ash has covered parts of the surrounding area

"We were very happy to go back in the morning," one villager, Egan, told the Associated Press news agency after arriving back at the refugee camp.

"But as soon as we got there, we saw a massive cloud steaming toward us. We all decided it was time to leave."

The volcano has been in what scientists call the early stages of eruption for weeks, but this is the first spike of activity since 8 June, when the volcano sent similarly huge clouds down the same slope. More than 15,000 villagers fled to safety.

Scientists fear the volcano was further destabilised by an earthquake which struck near the ancient city of Yogyakarta three weeks ago, killing 6,200 people.