Thousands evacuated as Indonesia’s Ruang volcano erupts

Jakarta — Hundreds residents of Indonesia’s Tagulandang island were waiting at the island’s port to be evacuated on Wednesday, footage from National Search and Rescue Agency showed, while grey smoke continued to erupt from Ruang volcano.

Indonesia’s Ruang volcano erupted on Tuesday, spewing lava that prompted authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people from the nearby Tagulandang island. It is the second eruption in as many weeks.

The Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) raised the alert status of Ruang to the highest level after yesterday’s eruption, and warned the residents of Tagulandang island that a tsunami could be triggered by volcanic material collapsing into the ocean.

“Personnel of Manado Search and Rescue Agency are evacuating 109 Tagulandang residents to Munte port, while hundreds are still waiting in Minanga port to be evacuated,” the National Search and Rescue agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

The residents will be evacuated to North Minahasa Regency on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island.

Transport authorities extended Manado’s Sam Ratulangi airport shutdown until noon on Thursday.

Meanwhile, carrier AirAsia said in an Instagram post on Wednesday that flights to and from several cities in Malaysia’s Borneo were affected by the eruption.

Ruang island is about 100km from Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province in the north-central region of the sprawling Indonesian archipelago.

Indonesia straddles the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an area of high seismic activity where multiple tectonic plates meet.

Reuters