SIDOARJO, Indonesia (AP) — Residents in the East Java province of Indonesia scattered flowers, paid their respects and prayed at the edge of a mud lake on Friday, the 20th anniversary of the eruption of the Lusi mud volcano that inundated villages and killed at least 14 people.
The eruption on May 29, 2006, was likely triggered by commercial gas drilling by a local exploration company, according to scientific research, contradicting an Indonesian government minister at the time who insisted it was a natural disaster.
Residents gathered to remember those killed, and the homes and neighborhoods they once lived in before boiling mud slowly swallowed them up in the Porong subdistrict in Sidoarjo.
