It spewed ash 4 kilometers into the air
According to information and photos released by Indonesia’s volcanological research service, Ibu spewed ash into the air for 4 kilometers on Saturday evening. Abdul Muhari of Indonesia’s Disaster Management Agency said a joint team of police, military and search and rescue officials was sent to the area to evacuate residents of nearby villages.
Photos released by the agency show members of the group helping the elderly and transporting residents in trucks to other areas to stay overnight in makeshift tents. The company did not provide additional information on the number of evacuees. However, officials have recommended evacuation of everyone within a 7-kilometer radius of the volcano.
Indonesia’s volcanological research agency raised the alert level for the risk of volcanic eruption from Thursday, following several eruptions in Ibu earlier this month. Ibu’s increasing activity follows a series of eruptions at various volcanoes in Indonesia, which sits on the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire” and has 127 active volcanoes.
More than 60 people died in floods and landslides in the surrounding area on May 11 after rains from the highly active Marabi volcano in West Sumatra province. In recent weeks, the Ruang volcano in North Sulawesi also erupted, spewing red-hot lava and forcing authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people to a nearby island because of the eruption.
A member of the disaster management agency said police, army and search and rescue teams have been dispatched to evacuate residents of villages near the volcano.
Officials have recommended evacuation of people within a seven-kilometer radius around the volcano. According to official statistics, in 2022 more than 700,000 people lived on the island of Halmasera. As Ibu has erupted several times this month, the volcano service raised the volcano’s warning level to its highest level on Thursday.
