Residents ride in a truck as Mount Sinabung releases pyroclastic flows during its eruption in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017. The volcano blasted volcanic ash as high as 4.2 kilometers (2.6 miles), one of its biggest eruptions in the past several months of high activity. (AP Photo/Endro Rusharyanto)
© earthquake.usgs.gov
Sinabung volcano spews thick smoke and volcanic material in Indonesia’s Karo district on September 15, 2013. (AFP/KHARISMA TA)
AKARTA – Thousands of villagers fled Sunday after a volcano erupted on Indonesia’s Sumatra island spewing rocks and red-hot ash onto surrounding villages, officials said.
Mount Sinabung in Karo district, North Sumatra province, erupted violently before dawn.
“More than 3,000 people have been evacuated from areas within a three-kilometre (two-mile) radius of the volcano, and they are all safe,” Asren Nasution, the head of North Sumatra disaster agency, told AFP.
