Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki spews ash days after a deadly eruption

Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki volcano spewed towering columns of hot ash high into the air on Saturday, days after a huge eruption killed nine people and injured dozens of others.

Activity at the volcano on the remote island of Flores, in East Nusa Tenggara province, has increased since Monday’s initial eruption. On Thursday, authorities expanded the danger zone as the volcano erupted again.

Friday’s activity saw the largest column of ash so far, recorded at 10 kilometres high, Hadi Wijaya, the head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation, told a news conference.

Wijaya said volcanic materials, including smouldering rocks, lava, and hot, thumb-size fragments of gravel and ash, were thrown up to 8 kilometres from the crater on Friday.

There were no casualties reported from the latest eruption as the 1,584-meter volcano shot billowing columns of ash at least three times on Saturday, rising up to 9 kilometres, the volcano monitoring agency said.

Authorities increased Lewotobi Laki-Laki’s alert status to the highest level since Monday, and expanded the danger zone on Thursday to a radius of 8 kilometres on the northwest and southwest sides of the mountain slope.