An urgent emergency alert has been issued across a country after a major volcano started erupting, sparking mass evacuations. Guatemala issued the second-highest emergency alert on Monday after the Fuego volcano erupted, sending lava spewing out and plumes of ash four miles into the air.
Officials began evacuating two villages near the volcano, Central America’s most active, which stands at 3,763 metres. Disaster coordination agency CONRED said authorities were evacuating El Porvenir and the hamlet of Las Lajitas as a preventive measure, affecting around 250 people.
The agency also warned that ash could spread to other nearby towns.
Claudinne Ogaldes, executive secretary of CONRED, told The Associated Press that the eruption started on Monday morning and increased during the day.
Images from the scene showed big clouds of gas and ash over the volcano as lava and pyroclastic flows rolled down the slopes at great speed.
“The eruption increases its explosiveness level. A fountain of lava of between 200 and 300 meters (650 to 1,000 feet) has developed over the crater,” according to a report from the Guatemalan Seismology, Vulcanology, Weather and Water Institute.
A major highway that passes close to the volcano, National Route 14, was also closed, and the Education Ministry suspended classes in nearby towns.
The Fuego volcano is one of Guatemala’s most active volcanoes, and another eruption in June last year prompted preventive evacuations.
Hundreds of people were killed, and a whole village was destroyed during a previous eruption in June 2018, which affected up to 1.7 million people, according to authorities.
