Volcano devastates Congo city

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo -- Around 45 people were killed and hundreds of thousands fled Goma, eastern Congo after a volcano erupted and devastated the city.

Tens of thousands hurriedly left possessions behind and fled across the border into Rwanda as a two metre high surge of molten lava advanced, destroying everything in its path.

United Nations officials in Kigali estimated the number of dead at 45, as lava poured down the slopes of Mount Nyiragongo, through the town and into Lake Kivu that straddles the Rwanda-Congo border.

The officials said that an estimated 400,000 people had been displaced and that a third of the city was on fire.

COUNTRY PROFILE At a glance: Congo (DRC) Provided by CountryWatch.com

"Maybe a third of Goma city, according to the people here, is burning," Elba told CNN. "The situation remains volatile."

He said the city's cathedral and "many" homes, all made of mud, were burned. He added that the compounds of the World Health Organization, Save the Children, and other nongovernmental organisations were destroyed.

Overnight, the horizon was one long stretch of flames and smoke, from time to time broken as fuel stations caught fire and exploded, Reuters reported. Earth tremors shook the town every half an hour.

By daybreak on Friday, the 3,469-metre (11,380 ft) Nyiragongo volcano appeared to have quietened down and the sky above Goma was heavy with smoke and mist.

Some people returned to their homes only to find charred rubble as the city -- the largest in Eastern DR Congo, home to 400,000 people -- was cut in two by the molten flow.

Fourteen villages in the path of the lava were said to have been incinerated.

In the nearby town of Gisenyi, 10 km across the border in Rwanda, displaced people lined the sides of the roads, lying down to sleep anywhere they could find a patch of ground. Some had abandoned cars and trucks and crossed the border on foot.

Military sources in Gisenyi said the number of people who had fled across to Rwanda could be as high as 300,000. There was no estimate of the number of casualties.

Elba told CNN he could hear the deep rumbling noise of the volcano all the way to Gisenyi. In Goma, there was "smoke and light everywhere," he said. "It's very amazing. Huge smoke. A huge cloud of smoke."

A Congolese officer told Reuters that Congolese troops had started looting the town, but Rwandan soldiers were trying to restrain them.

"There are some buildings still standing but there are certainly no people around," he said.

The wealthy district of Himbi appeared to have been spared. More hilly than the rest of Goma, its slopes served as a barrier to a lava flow at least two km (1.2 miles) wide.

The airport appeared to have been spared with the runway still intact but kerosene storage facilities there burned for some time. The United Nations evacuated all its staff from a base near the airport on Thursday. Airport officials had already ordered all planes to leave.

The Nyiragongo volcano is one of eight on the borders of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

The region is dense with tropical forests and home to rare mountain gorillas which inhabit the slopes of the dormant volcanoes.

Only two of the volcanoes are active -- Nyamuragira, which erupted early last year causing no casualties -- and Nyiragongo.

In 1977, up to 2,000 people died when a 1,000 metre-wide lake of lava burst through fissures in Nyiragongo's flanks at 60 km (40 miles) an hour, which experts said was the fastest lava flow on record.

Nyiragongo was last active in 1994, when a lava lake in its crater reappeared, casting an orange light onto clouds at night.