Indonesia lowers alert level for Ruang eruptions

Photo: Ronny Adolof Buol Agence France-Presse More than 6,000 residents of the island of Tagulandang, where the volcano is seen here on Friday, where around 20,000 people live, have been evacuated since the eruptions began, but no injuries or deaths have been reported.

France Media Agency in Jakarta

Published at 10:38 a.m.

• Asia

Indonesian authorities on Monday lowered the alert level linked to the activity of the Ruang volcano, which erupted more than half a dozen times last week in the north of the archipelago, and allowed the nearest international airport to reopen.

The awakening of the volcano, which spewed a mixture of lava and clouds of ash last week, triggered the evacuation of thousands of people.

But its activity has since calmed and the country's volcanology agency on Monday lowered the alert level to the second highest level of a four-tier system. “Based on the results of visual and technical monitoring that show a decrease in volcanic activity at Ruang Volcano, the alert level has been lowered from level IV to level III,” said Hendra Gunawan, director of the Ruang Volcano. 'agency of volcanology, in a press release.

The agency also reduced the exclusion zone from six to four kilometers.

The international airport in the provincial capital, Manado, located more than 100 kilometers from the crater, reopened Monday afternoon after several days of closure, according to authorities.

More than 6,000 inhabitants of the island of Tagulandang, neighboring the volcano, where around 20,000 people live, have been evacuated outside the exclusion zone since the start of the eruptions, but no one injured or no deaths have been reported.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago in Southeast Asia, is located on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an area of ​​significant volcanic activity.