Indonesian Volcano Erupts, Forces Evacuations

A remote Indonesian volcano sent a tower of ash spewing into the sky, after nearly half a dozen eruptions earlier this week forced thousands to evacuate when molten rocks rained down on their villages.

Mount Ruang in Indonesia's outermost region of North Sulawesi started erupting late Tuesday, stirring a spectacular mix of fiery orange lava, a towering ash column and volcanic lightning.

Officials said Ruang had calmed, but it started to belch ash again hours later after authorities maintained the highest alert level and told residents to stay out of a six-kilometer exclusion zone.

The country's volcanology agency said the eruption sent a plume of smoke 400 meters above the peak.

The ash column was observed to be gray in color, leaning towards the south.

Hundreds of locals on neighboring Tagulandang island were earlier seen cleaning up volcanic material from the harbor and their yards with the help of soldiers and police officers.

Indonesia's volcanology agency had earlier warned in a statement that the volcanic activity at Ruang was "still high" with potential dangers including flying rocks, hot clouds and lava flows.

There were no reports of deaths or injuries but authorities said a day earlier they hoped to evacuate 11,000 people from the exclusion zone.

The closure of a nearby international airport in Manado city, more than 100 kilometers from the crater, was also extended to, national disaster mitigation agency spokesman Abdul Muhari said in a statement.

The alert level upheld the exclusion zone around the crater, as well as warnings about further eruptions and parts of the volcano collapsing into the sea that could cause a tsunami.

Mount Ruang's last major eruption was in 2002, when residents also had to be evacuated.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire".