KUALA LUMPUR – Indonesian authorities are evacuating more than 2,200 residents amid a series of eruptions in recent weeks at Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki in East Nusa Tenggara province.
One of the eruptions was yesterday with the volcano spewing ash some 1.5km above its peak, said the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG).
The agency also recorded another eruption today but there was no volcanic ash.
The evacuees from two sub-districts are being moved to temporary shelters.
“There are 1,931 evacuees in the Wulanggitang (sub-district), and 328 evacuees in the Ile Bura (sub-district). Numbers of evacuees could rise as more people seek refuge from the volcano,” Benediktus Bolibapa Herin, an official for East Flores district, told AFP.
[TIMELAPSE ERUPSI G. LEWOTOBI. 1 JANUARI 2024. pic.twitter.com/FTf4Tftdcm
— PVMBG (@PVMBG_) January 1, 2024
Yesterday, authorities raised the volcano’s status to the second-highest of Indonesia’s four-tiered alert levels.
The exclusion zone was expanded from two to four kilometres around its crater.
State news agency Antara had reported that the Frans Seda Airport, more than 80km away, has been closed since yesterday.
Indonesia, located on the so-called Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, has some 130 active volcanoes. – January 2, 2024