Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano has erupted again after a week of activity which began with an eruption on that killed nine people.
Friday’s eruption on the tourist island of Flores in the province of East Nusa Tenggara saw Lewotobi Laki-laki belching volcanic ash that rose up to 10 kilometres into the sky, officials said.
Hadi Wijaya, chief of Indonesia’s volcanology agency, said volcanic matter and hot gas travelled across all directions from the volcano.
“There were two eruptions: first at 1:55 pm (0555 GMT), the height reached 4,000 metres, but suddenly, a minute later at 1:56 pm and the volcanic ash reached eight to 10 kilometres,” volcanology agency official Prihatin Hadi Wijaya told a press conference.
Officials at the monitoring post had to evacuate after the colossal eruption, he said, as ash and small rocks rained down while residents outside an exclusion zone watched on.
Thousands evacuated as the damage extended across more than 2,000 homes.
About 6,000 of the more than 16,000 people living in areas nearest the volcano had been evacuated to other villages,” Flores government official Heronimus Lamawuran said.
Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for the country’s disaster mitigation agency, said the more than a dozen eruptions seen over the week were “pretty significant” due to ash rains and sand-falls that reached far into the surrounding areas.
Friday’s eruption produced the highest column since the first eruption on Sunday, he said.
He said supplies of food and masks for evacuees in several evacuation spots are enough and the situation is under control.
The 1,703-metre tall volcano derives its name from the Indonesian word for “man”.
It is twinned with a calmer volcano named after the Indonesian word for “woman”.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific Ring of Fire.
ABC/wires
