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Indonesian volcano spews ash 10 km high, thousands evacuate

Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki continues to unleash towering column of hot clouds

Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki erupted several times on Friday, belching volcanic ash that rose up to 10 km (32,800 ft) into the sky, officials said, following a big eruption on Sunday night that killed nine people.

The eruption on the island of Flores in the province of East Nusa Tenggara has damaged more than 2,000 houses and caused thousands to evacuate.

Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for the country’s disaster mitigation agency, said the eruptions were “pretty significant” due to ash rains and sand-falls that reached far into the surrounding areas.

Hadi Wijaya, chief of Indonesia’s volcanology agency, said one eruption on Friday produced a towering ash column that reached eight km to 10 km high, adding volcanic matter and hot gas travelled across all directions from the volcano. Wijaya said volcanic materials, including smoldering rocks, lava and hot, thumb-size fragments of gravel and ash, were thrown up to 8 kilometers from the crater on Friday.

Friday’s eruption produced the highest column since the first eruption on Sunday, Abdul said. There were no casualties reported from the latest eruption.

About 6,000 of the more than 16,000 people living in areas nearest the volcano had been evacuated to other villages, said Heronimus Lamawuran, a Flores government official. The series of eruptions this week have already affected more than 10,000 people in 10 villages, with more than half moving into makeshift emergency shelters.

Abdul said supplies of food and masks for evacuees in several evacuation spots are enough and the situation is under control. The volcano monitoring agency has increased Lewotobi Laki Laki’s alert status to the highest level.

A volunteer stands near collapsed houses following the Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano eruptions, in East Flores regency, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, November 6, 2024. Antara Foto/Aditya Pradana Putra/ via REUTERS

“We are still evaluating how far the (danger zone) radius should be expanded,” he said.

The volcanic activity has damaged schools and thousands of houses and buildings, including convents, churches and a seminary on the majority-Catholic Island. Experts at the scene have found craters from rocks falling from the eruptions up to 13 meters (43 feet) wide and 5 meters deep.

About 6,500 people were evacuated in January after Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki began erupting, spewing thick clouds and forcing the government to close the island’s Fransiskus Xaverius Seda Airport. No casualties or major damage were reported, but the airport has remained closed due to seismic activity.

Three other airports in neighboring districts of Ende, Larantuka and Bajawa have been closed since Monday after Indonesia’s Air Navigation issued a safety warning due to volcanic ash.

Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of a pair of stratovolcanoes in the East Flores district of East Nusa Tenggara province, known locally as the husband-and-wife mountains. “Laki laki” means man, while its mate is Lewotobi Perempuan, or woman.

The 1,584-meter (5,197-foot) volcano is one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago of 280 million people. The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean. (AP/Reuters)

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