Volcanic eruption in Indonesia forces evacuations, flight cancellations

Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupted with giant ash and smoke plumes again on Wednesday after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancellations, including to and from the resort island of Bali.

Several eruptions sent ash up to 5,000 metres into the sky on Tuesday evening to Wednesday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10,000 metres  into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as far as 150 km away.

The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8 km from the crater.

Officers also evacuated from the Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki monitoring post 7 km from the crater to avoid falling gravel released in the eruption. No casualties have been reported.

Ash and debris fell in a number of places outside the danger zone, including villages of Boru, Hewa and Watobuku. Some residents from Nurabelen village in Ile Bura subdistrict fled to evacuation sites in Konga to avoid the impact of the eruption, the National Disaster Management Agency said in a statement.

“Some residents have also evacuated to Nileknoheng village, which is 12 km from the crater,” said Abdul Muhari, the National Disaster Management Agency’s spokesperson.

Dozens of flights on Wednesday were cancelled, including those connecting Bali to cities in Australia, Malaysia, India and China, according to the website of Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport. Volcanic ash can pose a risk to plane engines.

Flights also were cancelled to and from the international airport in Labuan Bajo, another tourist destination in Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara province. The airport is still operating.

The cancellations and delays affected thousands of travellers. Australian carrier Jetstar, which flies daily between the tourist hotspot and several Australian cities, said the ash cloud was forecast to clear by late Wednesday and its services would be rescheduled.

Air New Zealand cancelled one return trip to Auckland and would rebook customers on the next available service, the airline said in a statement on Wednesday. Flights to New Delhi, Singapore and Pudong, China, were also cancelled due to the volcano, according to information on the website for Denpasar airport in Bali.

The 1,584-m Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki is a twin volcano with Mount Lewotobi Perempuan in the district of Flores Timur.

The volcano has had several eruptions, and its danger level and no-go zone have changed several times before being raised again to the highest level on Tuesday.

An eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki in November killed nine people and injured dozens. It also erupted in March.

Indonesia is an archipelago of 270 million people with frequent seismic activity. It has 120 active volcanoes and sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

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