Many of an estimated 10,000 villagers who fled a volcanic eruption on the Indian Ocean Comoros islands returned home yesterday, encouraged by calm reigning at the summit?s crater, a United Nations (UN) official said. Mount Karthala erupted on Sunday in a fountain of ash and smoke that sent local residents fleeing for safety and turned drinking water grey, sparking lingering fears that supplies may be contaminated. ?People are going home en masse,? said Toihir Mlahaili, communications officer with the UN children?s agency UNICEF in the capital Moroni. ?Life is returning to normal,? he said. Another UNICEF official said the agency would begin distributing rice to families sheltering at a village on the southern flank of the volcano, whose crater filled with magma glowing like hot coals during its first eruption since 1991.

Scientists are testing water supplies in settlements nearest the crater for pollution after ash poured into open-air tanks residents use to collect rainwater for drinking on the island of Grande Comore, some 300 km (180 miles) off east Africa. Most of those who fled fearing the volcano could spew a river of lava or belch poisoned fumes stayed with relatives living further down the slopes of Karthala, which forms the bulk of Grande Comore, the largest island in the Comoros archipelago and home to about 230,000 people.