Mount Ruang in the central province of North Sulawesi sent thick clouds of ash more than 5 km (3 miles) into the sky.
Thousands of people were evacuated and flights disrupted after Indonesia’s Mount Ruang erupted again, sending thick clouds of ash more than 5 km (3 miles) into the sky.
Officials said the volcano in the archipelago’s North Sulawesi province erupted at least three times on Tuesday, raising fears that debris could fall into the sea and trigger a tsunami.
Footage shared by the Indonesian Civil Protection Agency (BNPB) showed lightning strikes over Ruang’s crater as fiery red clouds of lava and rocks were thrown into the air.
The agency said all 843 residents of Ruang Island, where the volcano is located, were relocated to the provincial capital Manado, about 100 km (62 miles) away. About 12,000 people from neighboring Tagulandang Island are being evacuated to Siau Island further north, with two ships being deployed to assist in the process.
Rosalin Salindeho, a 95-year-old resident of Tagulandang, spoke of her fears when the Ruang eruption broke out after she arrived in Siau.
“The mountain exploded. Wow, it was terrible. It was raining stones. Twice. The second one was really heavy, even the houses further away were hit,” she said.
The Indonesian Meteorological Agency (BMKG) released a map on Wednesday morning that showed volcanic ash had reached as far as Borneo, the island Indonesia shares with Brunei and Malaysia.
Indonesia’s air traffic control agency AirNav Indonesia said seven airports had to close, including in Manado and the city of Gorontalo.
Malaysia Airlines said the ash had led to the cancellation of some flights to and from airports in the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, with travel dependent on weather conditions. North Sulawesi is located in the central part of the Indonesian archipelago.
Julius Ramopolii, the head of the Mount Ruang monitoring post, said the volcano was still billowing ash and smoke above the crater on Wednesday morning.
“The volcano is visible, the plume of smoke is visible, gray and thick, reaching 500 to 700 meters (2,300 feet) above the crater,” he said in a statement.
He said the alert level remained at the highest level of a four-tier system and urged residents to stay outside the seven-kilometer exclusion zone declared by authorities.
Due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where several tectonic plates meet, Indonesia regularly experiences earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Mount Ruang recorded a series of eruptions in early April, which also led to evacuations and aviation disruptions due to fears of a tsunami.
In 2018, the crater of Mount Anak Krakatau between the islands of Java and Sumatra partially collapsed in a major eruption that sent huge sections of the volcano sliding into the sea, causing a tsunami that killed more than 400 people and injured thousands more.