FLORES TIMUR (AP) – Indonesia has evacuated about 6,500 people on the island of Flores after Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano spewed thick clouds of brownish ash for the past days, authorities said on Monday.
No casualties or major damage have been reported so far.
The eruptions in East Nusa Tenggara province are part of hot gas spills that have become more frequent in recent days.
The 1,584-metre (m) mountain is one of the “twin volcanoes” – the Lewotobi Laki-laki and Lewotobi Perempuan – in the Flores Timur district.
The volcano has erupted 40 times since Sunday, with columns of hot clouds rising 500-1,500m into the
air.
Residents in nearby villages were taken in by relatives or brought to evacuation centres as authorities raised the volcano’s alert status to the highest level last Tuesday.
Officials urge the local community, as well as visitors and tourists, to stay away from a four-kilometre radius around the eruption zone and be aware of the potential for cold lava surging into rivers upstream from the peak in case of intense rain.
Lewotobi Laki-laki is one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people.
in East Flores, Indonesia. PHOTO: AP
