The three villages are now safe, and the refugees are allowed to return home."Medan, North Sumatra (ANTARA News) - All refugees of Mount Sinabung eruption have been allowed to return home upon the decrease of the North Sumatra volcano`s alert status.
Jhonson Tarigan, spokesperson for Mount Sinabung Disaster Mitigation, said the Volcanology and Geology Disaster Mitigation Agency (PVMBG) lowered the volcano`s alert status from level III to level II on Sunday (Sept 29).
The Karo administration allowed the remaining 1,096 refugees at Kabanjahe camps to return to their villages.
The villagers were not allowed to return home earlier as their villages - Simacem, Bekerah, and Sukameriah - were located within the three-kilometre radius of the exclusion zone.
"The three villages are now safe, and the refugees are allowed to return home," Tarigan said.
Previously, on Tuesday (Sept 24), 14,951 refugees, whose villages were located beyond the four-kilometre radius of the volcano, had returned home.
Some of them were residents of Berastepu, Kinayan, and Payung villages.
Mount Sinabung first erupted on Sept 17 at around 2:51 a.m.
The highest mountain in North Sumatra (2,600 metres high) erupted again two days later on Tuesday at 12:13 p.m., spewing volcanic ash five kilometres into the air.
Previously, Mount Sinabung had erupted twice on September 3, 2010, with the first eruption at 4:45 a.m. and the second at 6 p.m.
(Reported by Munawar Mandailing/INE/A059/KR-BSR/O001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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