'Catastrophic' Volcano Blast Kills Eight
AOL Wire Services
Posted: 2007-10-01 09:25:24
Filed Under: Natural Disaster, World News
SAN'A, Yemen (Oct. 1) - At least eight Yemeni soldiers were killed in a volcanic eruption on an island off the country's Red Sea Coast, the government said on Monday.

Master CPL Kevin Paul, Canadian Forces Combat Camera / AP A volcano erupts on a tiny Yemini island in the Red Sea. The blast killed eight Yemeni soldiers. This photo was taken Sunday from the deck of a Canadian frigate, one of several NATO warships in the area.

"At least eight are regarded as dead now," a government official told Reuters.

The eruption occurred on Jabal al-Tair, an island about 80 miles (130 km) from Yemen.

Yemen has had a military base on the island since its 1996 conflict with Eritrea over the nearby islands of Hanish and Jabal Zuqar.

Al-Arabiya television quoted witnesses as saying the island was engulfed in fire then disappeared.

"At least 49 soldiers were evacuated from the island," the television said, according to the witnesses. Yemeni officials were not available to confirm the report.

A NATO fleet passing nearby reported seeing a "catastrophic volcanic eruption" at 7 p.m. local time Sunday on the island, about 70 miles off the Yemeni coast, said Ken Allan, a Navy Public Affairs with the Canadian Armed Forces.

"At this time, the entire island is aglow with lava and magma as it pours down into the sea," Allan said in an e-mail Sunday evening. "The lava is spewing hundreds of feet into the air, with the volcanic ash also (rising) a thousand feet in the air."

A Defence Ministry official said the western part of the island had "collapsed" following the eruption. He said naval ships were searching the surrounding waters for nine missing Yemeni soldiers who were stationed on the island.

Yemen's Oil Minister Khaled Mahfoudh Bahah said several earthquakes felt on Sunday had triggered the eruption.

"Three earthquakes struck the island around 1127 GMT on Sunday, and were ranging between 4.3 and 4 on the Richter scale," Jamal al-Shalaan, head of the Yemeni Earthquake Centre told the state news agency Saba.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who flew to nearby Hudaidah port late on Sunday to observe the situation, told the Yemeni navy to send rescue teams, Saba reported.

The Canadian frigate Toronto was conducting a search and rescue operation at the request of the Yemeni coast guard. The NATO fleet was sailing north towards the Suez Canal at the time of the eruption, the Canadian navy said in a statement.

It said it was trying to locate nine people believed to be at sea in the area.

Navy spokesman Ken Allen told the Canadian Press news agency that lava was spewing hundreds of metres into the air, with volcanic ash also rising 300 metres.

In an email from on board the ship, he said the entire two-mile-long (three-km-long) island was aglow with lava and pouring into the sea.

A Yemeni geologist said the volcano had previously erupted in the 19th and 18th centuries, Saba said.

Additional reporting by Diala Saadeh in Dubai


Copyright 2007 The Associated Press
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