Volcano erupts in eastern Indonesia

JAKARTA - Mount Gamalama in Indonesia's eastern North Maluku province erupted on Thursday night, spewing a two-kilometer ash column, official said here Friday.

Powerful burst of hot ash and volcanic materials erupted from the rumbling volcano and is heading east, Nia Hairani, official of the national volcanology agency, told Xinhua by phone.

The agency has declared a 3.5-km evacuation zone from the crater of the volcano, she said.

A task force team from headquarters of the agency was heading to the slope of the vocano to monitor development of seismic activity of the mountain, said Hairani.

So far, there is no order for evacuation, but the communities living on the slope of the volcano are asked to be alert on the flows of rivers, whose upstream are near the volcano, for possible cool lava, said Amirruddin, senior official of disaster management agency at North Maluku province.

"The community is ordered to be on alert of possible cool lava flowing on rivers as rain is frequent in recent days,"he said.

As many as six people were killed by lava when Mount Gamalama erupted in 2011, according to the agency.

Indonesia is prone to volcanic eruption as it is home to 129 active volcanoes.