A powerful burst of hot ash and gravel has erupted from a rumbling volcano in western Indonesia, sending panicking villagers fleeing down the mountain.

Hot lava from an erupting volcano killed six people sleeping in a beach village on a small island in eastern Indonesia on Saturday, after ash and smoke from the volcano shot about a mile into the air, officials said.

The six people swept up and killed by hot lava from an erupting volcano in eastern Indonesia had refused to leave the area for safer ground when the mountain began rumbling last year, an official said.

A volcano has erupted in eastern Indonesia, killing five people and shooting smoke and ash up to 2,000 metres into the air.

The death toll from the earthquake that hit Indonesia earlier this week has reached 30.

INDONESIA’S Mount Merapi volcano erupted yesterday for the third time in a week, driving the number of refugees to almost 70,000, as the death toll from a tsunami thousands of kilometres to the west rose to 431, officials said.