Volcano erupts in Indonesia

2007-10-25 09:05

Jakarta, Indonesia - A volcano erupted in central Indonesia on Thursday, shooting plumes of white smoke and sand 1 500 metres into the air and covering nearby villages in ash, officials said.

Residents living near the crater of Mount Soputan, located on Sulawesi island, were evacuated before the blast and there were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage, said Sandy Manengke, a local monitoring official.

The heat could be felt as far as 20 kilometres away, he said, and some residents living in villages near the base of the 1 780-metre-high mountain wore facemasks to protect themselves from the smoke and ash.

Abandoned homes along the volcano's fertile slopes were covered in soot, Manengke said.

Indonesia has more active volcanoes than any other nation because of its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" - a series of fault lines stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia.

Mount Soputan, 2 160 kilometres northeast of the capital, Jakarta, is one of its most active. It rarely spews lava, however, instead spitting out smoke, ash and sand, Manengke said.

- AP