More than 3,000 villagers have fled the area around a volcano in eastern Indonesia after it started spewing gas and lava, officials said today.
Saut Simatupang, a senior vulcanologist, said the alert status for Mount Karangetan on Siau island was now at maximum.
"There is a hot gas cloud as far as 2.5 kilometres from the southern or southeastern parts of the volcano. Since it [the cloud] is near to villagers' homes, we have upgraded it to the top alert status," he said.
The official said there had been no casualties, but the lava flow was only 400 metres away from some villagers' homes.
He said that villagers had been evacuating at night, but were returning during the day to work.
Siau lies north of Manado on Sulawesi island, which is 2,200 kilometres northeast of the capital Jakarta.