The danger zone was expanded on Monday by Indonesian authorities around an erupting volcano that is hurling ash 9,800 feet into the atmosphere and whose explosions could be clearly heard over seven miles away.
Experts said lava is swelling up in the crater, sometimes it is reflected as a reddish-yellow glow in the ash plumes. The agency has raised the volcano’s red-alert to the highest level early Monday and expanded the danger zone to a radius of six miles. It said that a larger eruption is quite possible.
Spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told in a news conference in Jakarta that the expansion of the danger zone affects 22 villages and about 90,000 to 100,000 people. He said about 40,000 people have evacuated but others have not left and are reluctant to leave because they feel safe or don’t want to abandon their livestock.
“Authorities will comb the area to persuade them,” he said. “If needed we will forcibly evacuate them.” About 25,000 people were already living in evacuation centers after an increase in tremors from the mountain in September sparked an evacuation.
However, a 200m-tall column of smoke was spotted rising from Mount Agung early on Sunday, according to Gede Suantika, the chief geologist monitor the site.
He said: “We observed sulphuric smoke spewing from its carter and we never saw this before.”
More than 1,000 tremors were recorded on the Bali Volcano on Monday and Tuesday, including a magnitude 4.2 quake at 11am BST on September 26.
After the quake, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center tweeted: “Strongest quake so far while the volcano may be about to erupt.
The volcanic activity has caused the mass evacuations and local fears of the potential devastation by the Bali Volcano.
The Indonesian Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (CVGHM) raised the Bali volcano alert to 4, meaning an eruption can happen any time.
Balinese locals have been continuously fleeing the danger zone, which stretches 7.5 miles around Mount Agung.
He said: “We observed sulphuric smoke spewing from its carter and we never saw this before.”
More than 1,000 tremors were recorded on the Bali Volcano on Monday and Tuesday, including a magnitude 4.2 quake at 11am BST on September 26.
After the quake, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center tweeted: “Strongest quake so far while the volcano may be about to erupt.
Indonesian authorities have responsibly raised the state of alert to its highest possible level for the volcano, Mount Agung, after thick ash started shooting thousands of meters into the air sky with a magnum intensity.
“Agung volcano is said to be close to erupting and the Bali island just taken by a M4.2 earthquake.”
Devy Kamil Syahbana, a seismologist from Indonesia’s volcanology centre, said he had never ever seen such high seismic energy on Mount Agung.
He said: “We need to pay attention because these kinds of earthquakes indicate the movement of magma and increase the probability of an eruption.”
The latest Foreign Office advice to Britons who were about to visit, “an eruption is possible in the next 24 hours”.
The Foreign Office said: “You should follow the advice of the local authorities and stay outside the exclusion zone. If there is an eruption, volcanic ash clouds could cause flight disruptions.
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