Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki has erupted eight times, spewing a massive column of ash and prompting the government to consider permanent relocation for residents nearby.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from Thursday’s eruptions, the ash plume rising 2,500 metres (8,200 feet) from its peak, but residents on the tourist island of Flores were seen fleeing in panic.
Officials raised the alert for the 1,703-metre (5,587-foot) twin-peaked volcano to the highest level.
At least 5,816 of the more than 16,000 people living in areas near the volcano had been evacuated to other villages, said Heronimus Lamawuran, a spokesperson for the Flores regional government.
The country’s Center for Volcanology and Disaster Mitigation said a mixture of rock, lava and gas was also thrown up to 1km (0.6 miles) from its crater.
The volcano erupted on Monday and Tuesday, killing at least 10 people and forcing the relocation of residents from a 7km (4.3-mile) exclusion zone.
Anastasia Adriyani, 41, who lives outside the exclusion zone, described the eruption on Thursday as the biggest since she lived in Lewolaga village.
“I was cooking at the community kitchen [for evacuees] when it happened. I ran back home. I was very scared.”
The new eruptions sent residents running from their homes in nearby villages, the AFP news agency reported, adding that volcanic lightning was also seen.
The authorities warned the thousands of people who fled not to return to their homes, as the government planned to move the rest of the 16,000 residents out of the danger zone, said National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure (BNPB) chief Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians uses a single name.
“Permanent relocation is considered as a long-term mitigation measure to anticipate eruption in the future,” Suharyanto told reporters after visiting the devastated areas on Thursday.
Laki-Laki, which means “man” in Indonesian, is twinned with a calmer volcano named after the Indonesian word for “woman”.
Lewotobi Laki-Laki is one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago of 280 million people.
Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”.
On October 27, West Sumatra province’s Mount Marapi – one of the country’s most active volcanoes – also erupted.