Indonesia's Mount Ruang erupts, causes evacuations and airport closure
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The agency reinstates a six-kilometer (3.7-mile) exclusion zone, warning locals to be aware of "the potential for ejections of incandescent rocks, hot clouds and tsunamis due to eruption material entering the sea".
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Mt. Ruang erupted in Sitaro, North Sulawesi, sending a tower of ash spewing into the sky, undated. (AFP)
Indonesia's volcanology agency confirmed that the remote Mount Ruang volcano erupted again on Tuesday, forcing evacuations and closing a nearby international airport while the alert level was raised to the highest.
Located in the country's region of North Sulawesi province, Mount Ruang erupted at around 01:15 am local time (17:15 GMT Monday) and twice again Tuesday morning, according to a statement by the agency which also said that it sent a tower of ash more than five kilometers (3.1 miles) into the sky.
The agency has reinstated a six-kilometer (3.7-mile) exclusion zone, warning locals to be aware of "the potential for ejections of incandescent rocks, hot clouds and tsunamis due to eruption material entering the sea."
As at least five large eruptions took place on April 17, some returned to their homes after the emergency response status ceased on Monday, per an AFP journalist, but it remains unclear how many actually went back and how many were evacuated again.
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The Sam Ratulangi International Airport in the provincial capital of Manado is also closed, as confirmed by a notice from state-run air traffic control provider AirNav Indonesia.
The notice added that the airport was suspending operations due to "Ruang volcanic ash."
It is worth noting that Indonesia is home to frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire".
The Southeastern Asian country has been hit by a series of natural disasters that took the lives of thousands, from the 2018 earthquake that struck Lombok and killed 550 people to the subsequent Tsunami in Palu that claimed the lives of more than 4,300 people.
Officials are concerned about the collapse of part of the volcano into the sea, triggering a tsunami similar to the one in 1871.
