A column of smoke billows from the erupting Mount Ruang volcano in Indonesia Thursday forcing authorities to shut the nearest airport in Manado City and some 11,000 locals to take a mad dash to a nearby island for safety.
The crater of Mount Ruang flamed with lava against a backdrop of lightning bolts overnight after erupting four times on Wednesday, forcing authorities to raise its alert level to the highest of a four-tiered system.
Some residents were already trying to flee in a panic to the remote island of Tagulandang, home to around 20,000 people.
“Last night people evacuated on their own but without direction due to the volcano’s eruption and materials in the form of small rocks that fell, so the people scattered to find evacuation routes,” Jandry Paendong, an official from the local search and rescue agency, said in a statement Thursday.
He said 20 staff were helping evacuate residents along the coastline near the volcano on rubber boats.
He called for more boats and equipment so his team could “carry out evacuation for people in the coast or near the coast” facing the volcano.
Authorities also warned of a possible tsunami as a result of the eruptions.
“The communities in Tagulandang island, particularly those residing near the beach, (need) to be on alert for the potential ejection of incandescent rocks, hot clouds discharges and tsunami caused by the collapse of the volcano’s body into the sea,” Hendra Gunawan, head of Indonesia’s volcanology agency, said in a statement Wednesday.