Mount Ibu, a volcano on the remote Indonesian island of Halmahera, erupted on Saturday night, sending a plume of ash 2.5 miles into the sky. Authorities have evacuated residents from seven villages within a nearly four-mile radius.
Indonesia's Mount Ibu, a volcano on the remote island of Halmahera in North Maluku province, erupted on Saturday night, spewing a plume of ash and smoke into the air. The eruption turned the night sky into a spectacle of gray ash spewing out of the volcano's crater, accompanied by flashes of purple lightning.
Authorities have ordered the evacuation of residents from seven villages within a nearly four-mile radius of the volcano. A joint team consisting of police, military, and search and rescue services was dispatched to the area to assist with the evacuation.
The disaster mitigation agency has recommended that a seven-kilometer (4.35-mile) radius around the volcano be evacuated. The agency did not specify how many people had been moved, but authorities have urged residents to leave the area.
Mount Ibu last erupted on Monday for about five minutes, just days after its previous eruption on May 10. The eruptions have prompted the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation to raise the alert level for the volcano from 2 to 3, which is the second-highest level.
Officials have advised residents and tourists not to conduct any activities within three miles of the volcano's crater. More than 13,000 people live within a 3-mile radius of the northern side of the crater, according to Hendra Gunawan, chief of the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation agency.
Mount Ibu is a 4,347-foot volcano on the northwest coast of Halmahera. Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, has 120 active volcanoes. It is prone to volcanic activity because it sits along the "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.
In recent weeks, several other volcanoes in Indonesia have also erupted. On Thursday, North Sulawesi's Ruang volcano erupted, prompting authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people from a nearby island. On May 11, flash floods and "cold lava" flowed from Mount Marapi, one of the most active volcanoes in West Sumatra province, into nearby districts after torrential rains, killing more than 60 people.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
