A Monday volcanic eruption from Mount Sinabung, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, has projected into the atmosphere a thick column of smoke reaching nearly 5,000 meters high and covering ash villages, authorities said.
The Sinabung, where a series of eruptions have occurred since 2010, has seen a revival of activities in recent days.
"It was the biggest eruption for Sinabung this year," said the head of the national center for volcanology, Kasbani, who has only one surname as many Indonesians.
No residents were within the previously established security perimeter within seven kilometers of the volcano. But hundreds of houses outside this area have been covered with volcanic dust.
Masks to protect the face were distributed to the population. Authorities have recommended that residents stay at home to avoid breathing problems, said Nata Nail Perangin-angin, a local official with the Natural Disaster Management Agency.
"In some villages, the visibility was just five meters after the eruption, it was total darkness," he said.
The pressure inside the crater is likely to cause collapse in the structure of the volcano, according to the authorities.
The Sinabung, which entered a long eruption in 2013 after at least 400 years of sleep, is one of 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago located on the "Pacific Ring of Fire", an alignment of volcanoes lining the ocean Pacific along tectonic plate boundaries and seismic faults.
In 2016, seven people died as a result of a Sinabung eruption, and two years earlier, another rash had killed 16 people.
The most active volcano in the country, the Merapi, located on the island of Java and culminating at nearly 2,900 meters above sea level, has seen a series of eruptions since 2010 causing the death of more than 350 people.