More than a year after residents were threatened by Mount Sinabung, another eruption sent residents in the village of Karo, in North Sumatra, running from their homes. The volcano began spewing ash and smoke on Sunday, making villagers worry that they would have to once again evacuate.
Mount Sinabung erupted in September of 2013 and killed 14 people, sending 33,000 to shelters. Many of those residents remained displaced and panicked when the volcano started showing signs of activity more than a year later.
“We had returned from the evacuation centers and have been in our homes for only nine months, but today’s eruptions are worrying. The pyroclastic flows frightened us,” Sukandebi subdistrict head Asli Sitepu told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
High plumes of smoke and ash were seen in recent days as far as Berastagi city, about eight miles away. This is Mount Sinabung’s third eruption in the last year. The last eruption occurred in February of this year, killing 17, most of them students, as previously reported in the Inquisitr .
Authorities are calling residents and tourists to be on alert and remain cautious of more eruptions from Mount Sinabung. On Sunday, Commander of the Sinabung Emergency Response Task Force, Lt. Col. Asep Sukarna, said the volcano’s eruptions had not emitted pyroclastic flows (a fast-moving current of hot gas and rock — known as tephra — which reaches speeds, moving away from a volcano of up to 450 mph and can reach temperatures of 1,830 degrees Fahrenheit).
“These were the largest flows since June this year. They traveled up to (almost three miles)[sic] down the slope to the south of villages,” Asep told the Post on Sunday.
Some spectacular photos of the eruption of Mount Sinabung have been posted to Twitter.
. @AFPphoto : Residents watch Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano during an eruption on Wednesday pic.twitter.com/tJwVA8Xen1
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) October 8, 2014
RT @HuffPostUKPics: Mount Sinabung Volcano in Indonesia has started to erupt http://t.co/0cD0ozOFX7 pic.twitter.com/NBezQmg8OF
— infojogja (@infojogja) October 8, 2014
BREAKING PIC: This is Mount Sinabung Volcano in North Sumatra Indonesia as it is erupting pic.twitter.com/KDWnzpE21K
— Al Boe (@AlBoeNEWS) October 5, 2014
Mount Sinabung #volcano in North Sumatra of #Indonesia erupted, sending columns of ash up to 3km to the sky. pic.twitter.com/9xIs46VECa
— r i z ? i n ? ? (@azrizalz) October 5, 2014
Asep said that in addition to the pyroclastic flows, the eruptions of Mount Sinabung on Sunday also resulted in volcanic ash being thrown almost two miles into the sky. “Because of that, we have been distributing masks to locals and tourists visiting Berastagi today [Sunday],” the official said.
[Image via Shutterstock ]
