TOKYO —
Dozens of people were urged to evacuate their homes after a fiery volcanic
eruption in southern
Japan on Sunday as the national weather agency issued its
top-level alert for the mountain.
اضافة اعلان
Television footage
showed red-hot rocks and dark plumes exploding from Sakurajima volcano in
Kagoshima, which erupted just after 8pm (11am GMT).
There were no
immediate reports of damage, said Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihiko
Isozaki.
Prime Minister
Fumio Kishida has instructed the government “to work closely with the local
municipality to ensure damage prevention, such as through evacuations,” Isozaki
told reporters.
The volcano
frequently spits out smoke and ash, and is a major tourist attraction.
Sunday’s blast
propelled large cinders about 2.5km from the crater, the
Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said, while the smoke reached around 300m and merged with the
clouds.
The agency raised
its alert for Sakurajima to level five, the top level, which urges evacuations.
Previously it was
at level three, which bans entry to the mountain.
The volcano saw
four earlier eruptions between Saturday and Sunday afternoon, with the plume
reaching as high as 1,200m.
“Residential areas
of Arimura town and Furusato town within 3km of the summit crater ... of
Sakurajima should be on high alert,” Tsuyoshi Nakatsuji of JMA’s Volcanic
Observation Division told reporters.
According to
Kagoshima City, there are 77 residents in the two towns.
Nakatsuji said the
JMA last week had observed the swelling of the volcano, which signals the
accumulation of magma.
“But the swelling
hasn’t been resolved after the latest eruption,” he said.
“We’ll carefully
monitor this.”
Japan has scores
of active volcanoes and sits on the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire” where a
large proportion of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are
recorded.
Sakurajima was
formerly an island, but due to previous eruptions is now attached to a peninsula.
Japan last issued
the top evacuation alert for a volcano when Kuchinoerabu island, also in
Kagoshima, erupted in 2015.
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