The Mount Agung volcano on the Indonesian island of Bali has erupted again, sending up a 2000-metre-high column of thick ash and hurling lava down its slopes.
Indonesia’s geological agency says explosions from the mountain began just after 9pm (local time) on Monday and lasted more than seven minutes.
“Flares of incandescent lava” reached two kilometres from the crater, the agency said, setting fire to forests at high elevation.
Nearly 700 people fled the Banjar Galih village, about six kilometres from the crater, to an evacuation centre, a resident said.
“I saw smoke rising and the volcano rumbled very loud,” he said.
“We came here with motorcycles and those with cars helped carry other people.”
It was the volcano’s first explosive eruption since a dramatic increase in activity last year that temporarily forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
The alert status for Mount Agung has not been raised from its current second-highest level and the exclusion zone around the crater remains at four kilometres.
National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said Monday night’s explosions were “thunderous” and hurled white hot rocks from the crater.
The volcano was periodically erupting ash on Tuesday, which was drifting west.
The island’s airport, to the south, was still operating normally.
Bali’s international airport closed for half a day on Friday because of volcanic ash from Mount Agung, disrupting travel for tens of thousands.
The island is set to host World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in October.
The volcano, about 70 kilometres northeast of Bali’s tourist hotspot of Kuta, last had a major eruption in 1963, killing about 1100 people.
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