A volcano in eastern Indonesia erupted again on Tuesday, sending a column of ash into the sky, a day after spewing fireballs over nearby villages, killing nine people.
Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,703 meter high volcano located on the tourist island of Flores, spewed flaming rocks onto inhabited areas, which set wooden houses on fire, during the night from Monday to Tuesday.
Initially, the authorities reported ten deaths before revising this figure downwards. Several dozen people were injured.
Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupted again on Tuesday, throwing ash a kilometer into the sky, according to an AFP journalist near the volcano.
There is no immediate information on further damage in villages not far from the crater.
Rescuers on the island of Flores said in a statement that no residents were missing.
Neighboring residents who did not leave their homes after the first eruption were evacuated in trucks after the second, according to the AFP journalist.
Local authorities established a security perimeter with a radius of seven kilometers around the crater and asked residents and tourists not to approach.
More than 10,000 people were affected by these eruptions, according to authorities. The volcano experienced numerous tremors and eruptions last week, projecting columns of ash between 500 and 2,000 meters into the sky for several days in a row.
Laki-Laki, meaning “man” in Indonesian, is twinned with a quieter volcano named after the Indonesian word for “woman.”
The vast Indonesian archipelago experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the “Pacific Ring of Fire.”
