Indonesia’s Mount Ruang volcano erupted on Wednesday leading to evacuations of hundreds of people and the closure of a provincial airport in the vicinity of the Ruang volcano after it bleached explosive plumes of lava, rocks and ash for days, officials said on Thursday declaring the highest alert on the situation.
Wednesday’s dramatic eruption of the volcano on a remote island in the province of North Sulawesi threw a fiery-red column of lava, incandescent rock spread to the heights of almost three km (two miles) into the sky.
Ambar Suryoko, head of the airport authority office, stated that the closure was necessary to ensure flight safety, with Mount Ruang located over 100 kilometres away.
Videos on social media showed purple flashes of lightning renting the sky in Indonesia above the erupting volcano.
A user posted this video of Mount Ruang volcano in Indonesia on X:
“We’re running, guys,” said one witness who filmed the eruption while scrambling to evacuate. “We are escaping because the ash is coming close.”
More than 800 people were evacuated from the area, with authorities widening the evacuation zone further after the volcanology agency raised the alert status in Indonesia.
Agency official Heruningtyas Desi Purnamasari told reporters on Thursday that the potential for further eruption is still high, blaming a rapid escalation in volcanic activity. The agency had also received reports that falling rocks and ash damaged homes and forced a nearby hospital to evacuate, the official said.
Transport authorities shut the airport in the provincial capital of Manado to protect against the showers of ash from the eruption. Air Asia, a budget airline, has cancelled flights to nine airports in East Malaysia and Brunei due to the safety threat warned by aviation authority.
Budget airline Air Asia cancelled flights with nine airports in East Malaysia and Brunei after aviation authorities warned of a safety threat. Officials have cordoned off an area of six kilometers (4 miles) around the volcano and are
evacuating more residents, some from the neighbouring island of Tagulandang, said Abdul Muhari, spokesperson of the disaster mitigation agency. About 1,500 of those in high-risk areas needed to be immediately evacuated, he added, while almost 12,000 more stand to be affected.
Officials have also
flagged the risk of a tsunami if parts of the mountain collapse into the ocean below. About 400 people were killed in a tsunami unleashed by a previous eruption of the volcano in 1871.
