MOUNT SINABUNG, Indonesia (AP) – A noisy volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Thursday triggered an avalanche of gas clouds burning on its slopes. No casualties were reported.
Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province has thrown smoke and ash up to 1,000 meters into the air, and clouds of hot ash are blowing 3 kilometers to the southeast, the Indonesian Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazards warned.
There were no casualties in the eruption, said Armen Putra, an official at the Sinabung monitoring station. He said villagers were advised to stand 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from the mouth of the crater and should be aware of the danger of lava.
An alert has been maintained at the second highest level, while authorities are closely monitoring the volcano after sensors have been on the rise in recent weeks.
The 2,600-meter (8,530-foot) mountain has been rocking since last year. It sent volcanic materials over 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) into the sky and deposited ash in nearby villages when it erupted earlier this month.
About 30,000 people have been forced to leave their homes around Sinabung in recent years.
Sinabung was dormant for four centuries before erupting in 2010, killing two people. Another eruption in 2014 killed 17 people, while seven died in a 2016 eruption.
The volcano, one of two currently erupting in Indonesia, has sporadically come to life since then.
Sinabung is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which are prone to seismic upheavals due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines surrounding the Pacific basin.