JAKARTA (AFP) – A volcano in eastern Indonesia erupted twice, releasing a column of smoke nearly one mile into the air, the country’s volcanology agency said.
Mount Dukono on the Halmahera island in North Maluku province erupted at 16.52 local time, sending an ash tower 1.5 kilometres above its peak. “The ash column was observed to be white to grey in colour with thick intensity towards the southwest,” the volcanology agency said in a statement.
It had followed an earlier eruption that occurred around 6.46am local time, which the agency said spewed an ash column one kilometre into the sky. The volcano is currently on the third-highest alert level of Indonesia’s four-tiered alert system.
The agency said locals and visitors should not hike, carry out activities or approach the four-kilometre exclusion zone around Dukono’s active crater.
