Indonesia: Australia flights cancelled after volcano erupts in Bali

ANI
26 May 2019, 07:55 GMT+10

Jakarta [Indonesia], May 26 (ANI): Bali's airport on Saturday cancelled flights to and from Australia following an eruption of Mount Agung volcano that spread ash over the south of the Indonesian island.

After quoting the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management (BNPB), Al Jazeera confirmed that the eruption on Friday night lasted for four minutes and 30 seconds and spread lava and incandescent rocks over three kilometres radius from the crater.

"The status of Mount Agung remains Alert (level III) with the recommendation of the community/climbers and tourists are prohibited from carrying out activities within a radius of four km from the peak," the agency said in a statement.

Ash fell over dozens of villages, but no casualties were reported and no evacuations took place.

Some flights were cancelled to and from Australia after the eruption, but normal operations have since resumed.

Mount Agung, which stands at 3,031 metres (9944 feet) tall, has now erupted three times in May with six days between each eruption, according to the BNPB.

The BNPB has also established a four km exclusion zone around the volcano.

In 2017, authorities raised Mount Agung's alert level to four, the highest possible level, after an eruption cast an ash cloud as high as 9,100 meters (5.6 miles) over the island. 29,000 nearby residents were evacuated from their homes, CNN reports.

A major eruption in 1963 killed more than 1,700 people and destroyed a series of villages. (ANI)

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