Indonesian authorities evacuated residents of seven villages within a nearly four-mile radius of a volcano on the remote island of Halmahera in Indonesia after it erupted and spewed ash about 2.5 miles into the sky.
Reuters reported that Mount Ibu erupted on Saturday night, turning the sky into a spectacle of gray ash spewing out of the volcano’s crater with flashes of purple lightning.
A crew consisting of police, military and search and rescue services was sent to the area to evacuate residents from surrounding villages, according to a statement from the disaster mitigation agency.
The joint team reportedly assisted the elderly with evacuating the area while residents were moved out of the area in pickup trucks and taken to emergency tents to spend the night.
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Mount Ibu spews thick smoke in Gam Ici, North Maluku, on May 13, 2024. (AZZAM RISQULLAH/AFP via Getty Images)
The agency did not specify how many people had been moved, though authorities recommended that a seven-kilometer (4.35-mile) radius be evacuated.
Mount Ibu erupted last Monday for about five minutes, just days after it erupted on May 10. The eruptions caused 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.
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Lightning appears amid a storm as Mount Ibu spews volcanic material during an eruption, as seen from Gam Ici in West Halmahera, North Maluku province, Indonesia, on May 18, 2024. (Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation/Handout via Reuters)
Officials advised residents and tourists not to conduct any activities within three miles of Mount Ibu’s crater. More than 13,000 people live within a 3-mile radius of the northern side of the crater, Hendra Gunawan, chief of the Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation agency said.
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Purple lighting is seen near Mount Ibu on May 18, 2024. (Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation/Handout via Reuters)
Mount Ibu is a 4,347-foot volcano on the northwest coast of the remote island 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.
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Mount Ibu spews thick smoke in Gam Ici, North Maluku, on May 13, 2024. A volcano in eastern Indonesia erupted on May 13, spewing a huge ash tower more than five kilometers (three miles) into the sky after authorities raised its alert level to the second-highest last week.
On Thursday, the agency raised the alert level to the highest level, following several eruptions.
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.
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North Sulawesi’s Ruang volcano also erupted in recent weeks, prompting authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people from a nearby island.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
