The Ibu volcano, in eastern Indonesia, very active since the beginning of the year, erupted three more times this Thursday, sending a column of ash five kilometers above the summit, officials said. authorities.
The three eruptions occurred between 01:00 local time (17:00 on Wednesday in Lisbon), 07:46 and 08:11, the Indonesian Volcanology and Geology Agency said in a statement.
The first eruption sent a column of ash more than five kilometers above the summit, while the last eruption lasted about two minutes, agency director Muhammad Wafid said in the same note.
The volcano has erupted around a hundred times since the beginning of the year and is currently at the highest alert level in Indonesia’s four-tier system. Authorities raised the alert level to maximum in mid-May.
Authorities asked the population not to enter an exclusion zone of four to seven kilometers around the crater and to use respiratory masks and eye protection.
Ibu is one of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia, with more than 21,000 eruptions recorded last year.
According to official data for 2022, more than 700 thousand people live on the island of Halmahera. On May 17, hundreds of people living near the volcano were evacuated as a precautionary measure, following a new eruption, which led to the alert level being raised to the maximum level. maximum.
The vast Indonesian archipelago is located in the so-called “Ring of Fire” of the Pacific, an area of great seismic and volcanic activity.
In April, the Ruang volcano, in the north of Celebes province, erupted more than half a dozen times, forcing relief services to evacuate thousands of inhabitants from neighboring islands.
