Yoga tourists seek perfect selfie as thousand flee their homes under erupting volcano

Tourists pose in front of volcano Mt Agung in Bali, as more than 100,000 locals have been forced to flee their homes
Tourists pose in front of volcano Mt Agung in Bali, as more than 100,000 locals have been forced to flee their homes Credit: Katepolishchuk/Instagram

Instagrammers on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali have been slammed for self-indulgent posts in the shadow of Mount Agung, an erupting volcano that has forced up to 100,000 local people to flee their homes.

The jaded reaction to so-called “natural disaster selfies” was highlighted by Cosmopolitan magazine, which honed in on a series of Instagram posts by holidaymakers that have been criticised for taking an insensitive approach to an event that could wreck the tourist economy.

In one post that drew particular ire, a Ukrainian tourist using the name katepolishchuk, posed in an infinity pool gazing towards the smoking mountain.

“When you are left alone in the empty resort, because tourists are scared of the volcano, and you are chilling with the jungle and refilling your energy with the magnificent view on this power of the nature,”she wrote.

While also expressing some sympathy for locals forced to evacuate, sometimes the earth “also needs to breathe and release stress,” she continued.

“Easy to say until your entire family is burnt alive,” countered Instagram user Adam Gray, in response to the post.

“What is wrong with you?! Thousands of people needed to flee from the volcano and you use it for your self-staging. You are a symbol for everything that is wrong with the Instagram world,” retorted Dirk, a German instagrammer.

Up to 100,000 people were ordered to leave the vicinity of the volcano after it began erupting in mid-November, creating a dangerous ash cloud that prompted the cancellation of hundreds of flights and left thousands of tourists stranded.

Flights have now resumed, but those with homes within a six mile exclusion zone around the volcano have not been allowed to return. Almost 30,000 residents have no alternative but to camp out in temporary evacuation centres.

Previous social media antics involving the volcano have been condemned by the Indonesian authorities.

In October French hotel worker, Karl Kaddouri, was strongly criticised for posting a selfie on his Facebook page that showed him standing at the edge of the smoking volcano’s crater, even after local evacuations had already begun.

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Mr Kaddouri wrote on his page that despite hundreds of tremors that indicated an imminent eruption that he had felt the need to get out of his “comfort zone.”

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