Officials in Indonesia say at least 14 people have been killed after a violent eruption today of a volcano that had been rumbling for months.

Authorities, just before the fatal explosions, had allowed thousands of evacuated villagers back to their homes on the slopes of Mount Sinabung because they believed volcanic activity was subsiding, the New York Times reported.

But, earlier today the 8,530-foot-high volcano produced a series of huge blasts and eruptions, sending lava and pyroclastic flows nearly three miles away, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, told reporters.

Television reports showed villages, farms and trees across the region covered in thick gray ash.

Nugroho said the dead included a local television journalist and four high school students and their teacher who had gone to see the volcano's activity up close.

At least three other people were reported injured while the death count was expected to rise, the Times report said.

Located in western Sumatra, Mount Sinabung in has been spewing lava, searing gas and rocks out its top and down its slopes for months.

More than 30,000 people had been evacuated to schools and public buildings and makeshift tents. The government told the media it had been pressured to lift the evacuation orders by residents seeking to check on their homes and farms.

So, on Friday, an estimated 14,000 people who live outside a three-mile danger zone were allowed to return home.

After the eruption, everyone who had been allowed back home the day before were told to return to evacuation centers.

"The death toll is likely to rise as many people are reported still missing and the darkness hampered our rescue efforts," said rescue operation lead Lt. Col. Asep Sukarna.

Two people were killed in August 2010, during Mount Sinabung's last eruption, which also forced the evacuation of about 30,0000 people.