El Salvador's largest volcano, dormant for more than a century, shook the ground as it woke up on Saturday, hurling out hot rocks, killing at least two and forcing more than 2,000 to flee.
The Santa Ana or Ilamatepec volcano, located 66km west of the capital, rumbled and belched thick plumes of ash that reached more than 15km into the sky on Saturday morning.
Military emergency sirens blasted, calling for an immediate area evacuation of the hamlets in the coffee growing area, and soon after the volcano began hurling glowing rocks and ash from its crater.
The volcano "has begun to expel magma on the side of the town of San Blas, while the ash is being carried by a south-southwesterly wind," University of El Salvador vulcanologist Francisco Barahona said.
Officials with the National Emergency Committee said that by 1pm 2,250 people had been evacuated from the danger zone.
Hot rocks belched out by the volcano ranged from the size of a football to the size of a car, a journalist on the scene reported.
At least seven people were injured by red hot rocks spewed into the air by the eruption, the national police said.
Two people were killed when 200 residents fled the hamlet of Palo Campana, located just 2km from the crater, Interior Minister Rene Figueroa said.
The eruption triggered a landslide of boiling mud and water from a crater lake that rushed down onto Palo Campana from three directions, authorities said.
Interior Ministry officials declared a red alert in a 4km radius around the volcano. A lesser "yellow alert" was issued for adjacent areas.
Some 20,000 people live in the area surrounding the volcano.
President Antonio Saca called on El Salvadorans to remain calm, describing the eruption as one of "moderate magnitude."
The country's civil protection forces have been deployed and are operational, he said.
Saca said he understood many people had never seen a volcano erupting and would like to get close to observe the phenomenon.
"This is not a game," he warned. "This could represent danger since we are not discounting another eruption."
At 2,381m above sea level, the Santa Ana volcano is the highest point in El Salvador. It last erupted in 1904.
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
HISTORIC: After the arrest of Kim Keon-hee on financial and political funding charges, the country has for the first time a former president and former first lady behind bars South Korean prosecutors yesterday raided the headquarters of the former party of jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol to gather evidence in an election meddling case against his wife, a day after she was arrested on corruption and other charges. Former first lady Kim Keon-hee was arrested late on Tuesday on a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said. Her arrest came hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old. The court granted the warrant, citing the risk of tampering with evidence, after prosecutors submitted an 848-page opinion laying out
STAGNATION: Once a bastion of leftist politics, the Aymara stronghold of El Alto is showing signs of shifting right ahead of the presidential election A giant cruise ship dominates the skyline in the city of El Alto in landlocked Bolivia, a symbol of the transformation of an indigenous bastion keenly fought over in tomorrow’s presidential election. The “Titanic,” as the tallest building in the city is known, serves as the latest in a collection of uber-flamboyant neo-Andean “cholets” — a mix of chalet and “chola” or Indigenous woman — built by Bolivia’s Aymara bourgeoisie over the past two decades. Victor Choque Flores, a self-made 46-year-old businessman, forked out millions of US dollars for his “ship in a sea of bricks,” as he calls his futuristic 12-story
A man has survived clinging to the outside of an Austrian high-speed train, Austria’s state railway said on Sunday, reportedly after it left while he was having a cigarette break. The man late on Saturday grabbed onto the outside of the train at St Poelten, west of Vienna, and was later taken onboard after the train performed an emergency stop, railways spokesman Herbert Hofer said. “It is irresponsible, this kind of thing usually ends up with someone dying,” he said. “And you’re not just putting yourself in danger, if you end up under the train there’s rescuers, there’s police, fire
RSS