Two residents watch Mount Sinabung spewing hot gas and ashes during an eruption as seen from Tanah Karo, Indonesia, yesterday.
JAKARTA: Thousands of villagers fled yesterday after a volcano erupted on Indonesia’s Sumatra island spewing rocks and red-hot ash onto surrounding villages, officials said.
Mount Sinabung in Karo district, North Sumatra province, erupted violently before dawn. “More than 3,000 people have been evacuated from areas within a 3km radius of the volcano, and they are all safe,” Asren Nasution, the head of North Sumatra disaster agency, said.
Five halls normally used for traditional cultural ceremonies had been converted into shelters for those displaced.
Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, national disaster agency spokesman, said 3,710 people had so far been evacuated.
Nugroho said it was second recent eruption of Sinabung. The volcano was dormant for nearly 100 years before erupting in August and September 2010, forcing about 12,000 people to flee.
Afp
