No casualty or injuries reported so far
The Mount Sinabung volcano in Indonesia erupted on August 10, 2020 morning spouting ash at least 5,000 metres high into the sky. No casualty or injuries have been reported so far, according to news agency Associated Press.
The ash destroyed several nearby plantations, according to media reports.
Meanwhile, the villagers have been advised to stay five kilometres from the crater’s mouth, according to the agency.
Indonesia's Mount Sinabung spewed a giant ash cloud five kilometers into the sky https://t.co/5LwvWBN5rm pic.twitter.com/0742LZpL1k
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 10, 2020
Officials, along with local military and police personnel, distributed 1,500 masks and assisted locals in cleaning the volcanic ash. The local fire department despatched five trucks to help with the cleaning, according to Jakarta Post.
“This is an alert for all of us to avoid red-zone areas near Sinabung,” Agence-France Presse (AFP) quoted Armen Putera, a local official with Indonesia's Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Centre, as saying.
According to some residents, the village went dark for about 20 minutes and was coated with ash in a matter of a few minutes, reported AFP.
Mount Sinabung erupted in 2010 after a 400-year-long hiatus and has been continuously active since September 2013.
In 2016, seven people died after Mount Sinabung erupted, spewing ash about three kilometres into the sky. More than a dozen people were killed when it erupted in 2014.
Activity increased starting around April 2017, with a large ash eruption on August 2, 2017. Additional activity, including ash plumes, were observed over the next several months.
The largest eruption of the year occurred during the last week of December and continued into early 2018.
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