RED ALERT

Volcano Eruption Forces Thousands to Flee in Emergency Evacuations

Authorities raised the alert level to its most severe status in the region.

Authorities in Indonesia are rushing to evacuate 3,000 residents near the Mount Ibu volcano after it erupted for a third time in just a few days, sending a 2.5-mile-high ash cloud into the sky. The volcano, on the country’s eastern island of Halmahera, first erupted on Saturday, shooting up a flaming column. On Tuesday afternoon it blasted again, and then again on Wednesday for around two minutes, according to the country’s volcanology agency. The last eruption was enough for authorities to raise the alert level to the most severe in the local area. The Volcanological Survey of Indonesia then declared a three-mile exclusion zone around the mountain. The National Authority for Disaster Management said mass evacuations were initiated late Wednesday for those living closest to the danger. By Thursday morning, around 500 people had been moved. “The evacuation shelters have been prepared by the local administration, and today a full evacuation will be carried out for all residents in six villages,” a spokesman for the local disaster management agency said Thursday.