Photo:  ORIGINAL CAPTION: Mist rises from the forest covering the Mt. Kelud volcano near the village of Wilayang Ngantang in Indonesia's East Java. The volcano is critical phase and erupted after being shaken by more than 1,000 tremors over the last two days, the country's top volcano expert said. (Sigit Pamungkas/ Teuters)

Several volcanoes in Indonesia today spewed hot ash, molten rock and clouds of dark smoke amid fears that a violent eruption could happen at any time.

Mount Kelud, on the densely populated Java island, looked the most threatening as a dome of magma formed under a crater lake and soaring temperatures overheated monitoring equipment.

A few hundred miles away, Anak Krakatoa - or the child of Krakatoa - fired pumice and lava onto its slopes. At least one other of Indonesia's approximately 100 active volcanoes sent bursts of ash showering down on nearby villages. Experts said there was no connection between the heightened activity at the different volcanoes along the tropical archipelago.

The temperature of the crater lake on Mount Kelud was so great that nearby monitoring equipment stopped working, Surono, one of 16 volcanologists watching over the peak 24 hours a day, said.

Despite the threat, witnesses said there was little panic on Kelud's slopes. While several thousand people have fled to government shelters, around 25,000 others ignored evacuation orders and remained in the danger zone around Kelud.

Officials have made no attempts to prevent people from travelling inside a six-mile zone around the peak that the local government say is off-limits.

"I feel it is OK to stay here," Sukirno, who was tending papaya plants around four miles from the peak, said. "No one can guarantee our safety apart from ourselves."

Kelud, which has a particularly deadly history, has been on the highest alert level for more than two weeks, but scientists have been warning since Friday that an eruption was imminent based on the frequency of tremors, shaking and its intense heat.

In 1990, Mount Kelud spat out red-hot gases, mud and lava that killed more than 30 people and injured hundreds.

"If it goes this time, it will be much larger than in 1990," Surono said, basing his prediction on the number of tremors and the lake temperature - both of which have soared beyond that of the period preceding the earlier blast.

In 1919, a powerful explosion at Kelud, which could reportedly be heard hundreds of miles away, killed at least 5,160 people.

Anak Krakatoa was formed off the northern tip of Java island after a huge eruption at the giant Krakatoa volcano in 1883. That blast was heard nearly 2,000 miles away in Australia and sent up gas and burning ash which, combined with a tsunami, killed at least 36,000 people.

Indonesia sits on the so-called Pacific "ring of fire," where several continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

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