Indonesian Volcano Mount Sinabung Erupts

(Aug. 30) --Two people have been killed and local air traffic halted after a long-dormant volcano erupted on Indonesia's Sumatra island. International flights could be affected by choking smoke rising more than three miles.

Mount Sinabung, which had been silent since the 1600s, first erupted Sunday. Today, it raged again for six hours, raining ash and debris across several miles and killing two villagers who suffered respiratory and cardiac problems.

"We need more gas masks," Johnson Tarigan, an official in the Karo district, told CNN.

Nearly 30,000 people were forced to flee their homes, and local air flights were diverted because of dense smoke that could be seen for several miles. Aviation officials said international flights could be affected if winds kicked up, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

"The problem is, we really have no idea what to expect," Surono, a government volcanologist who uses only one name, told The Associated Press. "We don't know what set it off, (or) how long it will continue."

Indonesia is in the so-called "Ring of Fire" -- a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia, and home to some of the largest volcanic eruptions in history.

In April, heavy ash from a volcano in Iceland halted most European air traffic, forcing airports to close for five days. Meteorological officials are still recording seismic activity at the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, though it has significantly decreased.