A VOLCANIC eruption in Indonesia has spewed a fiery column of lava, killing 10 people.
The eruption at Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki around midnight spewed thick brownish ash as high as 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) into the air.
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Hot ashes hit several villages, burning down houses including a convent of Catholic nuns.
Images shared by authorities showed the evening sky over the volcano turned red due to the eruption, while footage showed some wooden houses on fire and mask-wearing residents being evacuated.
National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said rescuers were still searching for more bodies buried under collapsed houses.
Muhari added all the bodies, including a child, were found with a 2.4 mile radius of the crater.
Agusta Palma, the head of Saint Gabriel Foundation which oversees convents on the island said a nun in Hokeng village died and another was missing.
She added: “Our nuns ran out in panic under a rain of volcanic ash in the darkness.”
Hadi Wijaya, a spokesperson for The Center of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG), said: “After the eruption, there was power outage and then it was raining and big lightning which caused panic among residents.
The PVMBG had raised the status of the volcano to the highest alert level.
The agency said a four miles radius from the crater was cleared.
As of Monday afternoon at least 10 people had died, said local official Heronimus Lamawuran, adding the eruption had affected seven villages.
He said: “We have started evacuating residents since this morning to other villages located around 13 miles from the crater.”
The local government has declared a state of emergency for the next 58 days, Abdul said, meaning the central government could help provide aid to the 10,000 affected residents.
Authorities are still gathering data on the number of evacuees.
The nearest airport, located in the town of Maumere, had been temporarily closed.
Indonesia sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire”, an area of high seismic activity atop multiple tectonic plates.
This eruption follows a series of eruptions. In May, a volcano on the island of Halmahera, Mount Ibu, caused evacuation from seven villages.
North Sulawesi’s Ruang volcano also erupted in May and prompted authorities to evacuate more than 12,000 people.
Flash floods and cold lava flow from Mount Marapi in West Sumatra province in May killed more than 60 people.
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