Mount Sinabung erupts again sending ash plume into Indonesian sky

Vocano has been rumbling since 2010

An Indonesian man takes a picture of the Mount Sinabung volcano as it spews thick volcanic ash into the air in Karo, North Sumatra. Endro Rusharyanto / AFP

Indonesian students walk as Mount Sinabung erupts in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Mount Sinabung erupted on February 19, blowing volcanic ash more than 5,000 metres in the sky. Sinabung is one of the most active volcanos in Indonesia. It erupted in 2010 and since then killed 17 people in eruptions in 2014 and another nine people in 2016. Sarianto Ojo Sembiring / EPA

Indonesian students walk as Mount Sinabung erupts in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Sarianto Ojo Sembiring / AFP

Thick volcanic ash spews into the air from Mount Sinabung volcano in Karo, North Sumatra, on February 19, 2018. Endro Rusharyanto / AFP

Ash from Mount Sinabung volcano rises. Antara Foto / Maz Yons / via Reuters

Indonesian schoolchildren walk together at Sipandak elementary school in Tiga Pancur village in Karo, North Sumatra. Anto Sembiring / AFP

School children walk as Mount Sinabung erupts in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Sarianto / AP Photo

Mount Sinabung spews volcanic ash as it erupts in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Sugeng Nuryono / AP Photo

Mount Sinabung spews volcanic ash as it erupts in Kutarakyat, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Endro Rusharyanto / AP Photo

Motorists ride on a road covered in volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Sinabung in Gurukinayan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Endro Rusharyanto / AP Photo

Volcanic ashes from Mount Sinabung as seen from Berastagi, Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Tibta Nangin / EPA

An Indonesian volcano erupted Monday, sending a large column of ash and smoke about 5,000 metres into the air, leaving local villages coated in debris and officials scrambling to hand out face masks to residents.

Mount Sinabung on Sumatra island, which has been rumbling since 2010 and erupted in 2016, unleashed the thick plume after activity picked up recent days.

"This was the biggest eruption for Sinabung this year," said volcanology agency chief Kasbani, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

There was no report of injuries.

No one lives inside a previously announced no-go zone around the volcano.

But hundreds of houses outside the seven-kilometre danger zone were covered in volcanic ash.

Officials have distributed face masks and urged residents to stay indoors to avoid respiratory problems, said local disaster mitigation agency official Nata Nail Perangin-angin.

"In some villages the visibility was barely five metres after the eruption - it was pitch black," Perangin-angin added.

Pressure inside the crater was threatening to spark collapses in its dome, the official said.

Sinabung roared back to life in 2010 for the first time in 400 years. After another period of inactivity it erupted once more in 2013, and has remained highly active since.

___________

Read more:

Surge in volcanic activity could cause global catastrophe, but not just yet

Philippine volcano eruption 'could bury entire communities'

Hawaii residents fume over 38 minutes of terror triggered by false missile alarm

___________

In 2016, seven people died in one of Sinabung's eruptions, while a 2014 eruption left 16 people dead.

Indonesia is home to about130 volcanoes due to its position on the "Ring of Fire", a belt of tectonic plate boundaries circling the Pacific Ocean where frequent seismic activity occurs.