Airlift to rescue students trapped near volcano

Three Malaysian air force planes are going to Indonesia to pick up hundreds of citizens stranded by the eruption of Mount Merapi.

The Royal Malaysian Air Force said the C-130 transport planes left early today.

They will pick up 664 Malaysians, many of them university students who had been in the city of Yogyakarta, 20 miles from the volcano.

Mount Merapi unleashed nearly two billion cubic feet of gas, rocks and ash on Friday – its most powerful eruption in a century.

That prompted several international carriers to cancel flights to the capital, Jakarta, this weekend over concerns about risks posed by the volcanic ash.