Indonesia: Mount Ruang in Indonesia has erupted again, causing the evacuation of thousands and disrupting flights as thick ash clouds reached over 5km into the sky.
There are concerns that debris from the volcano in the North Sulawesi province of the archipelago may fall into the sea and trigger a tsunami, as officials reported that the volcano erupted at least three times on Tuesday.
Images released by the Indonesian Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) showed lightning strikes above Ruang’s crater accompanied by flaming red lava and rock clouds shooting skyward.
According to the agency, all 843 residents of Ruang Island, the location of the volcano, have been relocated to Manado, the province capital, which is roughly 100 kilometers (62 miles) away. With the assistance of two ships, about 12,000 residents of nearby Tagulandang Island are being evacuated to Siau Island, which is located further north.
95-year-old Tagulandang resident Rosalin Salindeho talked about her concerns when Ruang erupted after she got to Siau.
“The mountain burst into flames. Whoa, that was awful. Rocks were raining down. Two times. The second one was so heavy that it even struck distant houses,” she remarked.
The Indonesian Meteorological Office (BMKG) released a graphic demonstrating that volcanic ash had extended to Borneo, the island that Indonesia shares with Brunei and Malaysia.
Seven airports, including those in Manado and Gorontalo, were forced to close, according to AirNav Indonesia, the Indonesian air traffic control organization.
Depending on the weather, Malaysia Airlines claimed that the ash caused certain flights to and from airports in the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak to be cancelled. The Indonesian archipelago’s middle region is home to North Sulawesi.
The head of the Mount Ruang monitoring site, Julius Ramopolii, said that on Wednesday morning, the volcano was still spewing smoke and ash above the crater.
Indonesia is situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a region where several tectonic plates converge, and as a result, it frequently experiences earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
A series of eruptions from Mount Ruang earlier in April caused airline disruptions and evacuations due to tsunami worries.
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