At least 10 dead after Mount Lewotobi volcano erupts

At least 10 people have been killed after a volcano erupted in eastern Indonesia in the early hours of Monday, officials have said.

Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki, located on Flores Island in East Nusa Tenggara province, erupted at 23:57 local time, according to the Indonesian Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation (PVMG).

Hadi Wijaya, a PVMG spokesperson, said fiery lava and rocks had hit the villages about 4km (two miles) from the crater, burning and damaging residents’ houses.

According to local officials, the eruption has affected seven villages.

PVMG said fires had “occurred in residential areas due to the ejection of incandescent material” from the volcano.

It has raised the status of the volcano to the highest alert level, warning that a 7km (four-mile) radius from the crater must be cleared.

“We have started evacuating residents since this morning to other villages located around 20km (13 miles) from the crater,” local official Heronimus Lamawuran told Reuters.

Video footage shared with BBC News by eyewitnesses shows people covered in volcanic ash, rock showers and homes ablaze, as well as the scorched aftermath of the disruption.

A spokesperson from Indonesia’s disaster agency warned of potential flash floods and cold lava flows in the coming days.

They added that the local government had declared a state of emergency for the next 58 days, meaning the central government could help provide aid to 10,000 affected residents.

Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki – one of a pair of prominent volcanic peaks at the eastern end of the island of Flores – has been erupting on and off since last December, and there was already an official warning to stay more than 3km away from it.

The prolonged volcanic activity there this year has badly affected the local economy.

Hundreds of people have left their homes and have been sheltering in schools, while cashew nut farmers have complained that their crops have been ruined by the huge quantities of ash which have fallen on the surrounding area.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an area of high seismic activity atop multiple tectonic plates, and has about 130 active volcanoes.

Many communities live dangerously close to the volcanoes in order to cultivate the fertile soil they provide.