A volcano in Indonesia's West Sumatra province erupted early yesterday, belching black smoke and volcanic ash on nearby areas, officials and news reports said.
There were no reports of injury from the Mount Talang eruption, officials said.
Volcanologists ordered residents living within a 1km radius of the 2,575m Mount Talang -- about 60km from the provincial capital of Pandang -- to immediately leave their homes.
"We have urged those residents living in the dangerous areas to be evacuated and temporarily sheltered in a safer area on higher ground," said Isa Nurahmadan, an expert at the Bandung Directorate General of Volcanology in West Java.
The state-run Antara news agency said that Mount Talang started spewing volcanic ash on nearby areas at about 3:42am.
Rio, a vulcanology expert at the nearby monitoring office, said he was not sure whether there would be a larger eruption from the volcano, or how long the current eruption would last.
"Mount Talang erupted at about 3:42am this morning, sending volcanic ash onto its slope areas," Rio, who uses only one name, told Antara.
Nurahmadan said the Directorate General of Vulcanology has upgraded the status of Talang volcano to "alert," meaning that residents living in areas classified as dangerous have to be ready to flee their homes "at any time."
"We don't know for sure whether there will be a major eruption from the Talang volcano, but we already deployed a team of experts this morning to West Sumatra for close monitoring," Nurahmadan said.
He said the activity of Mount Talang increased following a series of earthquakes that have jolted Sumatra in recent months.
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