Indonesian rescuers scrambled to evacuate thousands of people on Thursday after a volcano erupted five times, causing authorities to close a nearby airport and issue a tsunami warning due to falling debris.
Mount Ruang’s crater blazed with lava against a backdrop of lightning bolts overnight after erupting four times on Wednesday, prompting authorities to raise the alert level to the highest of four levels.
The volcano in Indonesia’s far reaches was still spewing smoke on Thursday morning, causing authorities to close the nearest international airport in Manado City on Sulawesi Island for 24 hours.
Authorities said they were racing to evacuate 11,000 people from the adjacent area, including the secluded island of Tagulandang, which is home to almost 20,000 people.
According to officials, some residents had already attempted to evacuate in a panic.
“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 stated that 20 employees were assisting in the evacuation of communities along the volcano’s coastline using rubber boats.
He requested additional boats and equipment so that his team could “carry out evacuation for people on or near the coast” facing the volcano.
Tourists and residents were advised to stay outside a six-kilometre exclusion zone.
Following the first eruption on Tuesday evening, more than 800 residents were evacuated from Ruang to nearby Tagulandang island, where four further explosions occurred on Wednesday.
Tsunami warning
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.
The authorities’ concerns were heightened by prior experience.
Mount Anak Krakatoa’s crater between the Java and Sumatra islands partially collapsed in 2018 after a large eruption drove massive portions of the volcano into the ocean, producing a tsunami that killed over 400 people and injured hundreds.
Indonesia, a huge archipelago nation, sees frequent seismic and volcanic activity as a result of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc where tectonic plates meet that spans from Japan to Southeast Asia and across the Pacific Basin.
The eruption of Mount Ruang forced the closure of Sam Ratulangi International Airport in Manado City, which is more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the volcano, for 24 hours till Thursday evening.
The airport runways were closed “due to the spread of volcanic ash, which could endanger flight safety,” according to Ambar Suryoko, the Manado region airport authority office’s director.
The airport serves airlines that travel to Singapore, South Korea, and China.
“All flights… impacted because the airport is affected by the eruption of Mount Ruang, volcanic ash,” Dimas, a 29-year-old airport officer in Manado told AFP by phone.