Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki spews volcanic materials during an eruption, in East Flores, Indonesia on November 7, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki unleashed towering columns of ash into the air on Thursday, in an even larger eruption than the one that killed nine people and injured dozens of others three days ago.

There were no reports of casualties from the latest eruption as residents living in the danger zone spanning a radius of 7 kilometers from the crater had been evacuated to other villages, said Kensius Didimus, a local disaster agency official.

The 1,584-meter volcano on the remote island of Flores shot billowing columns of ash 11 times on Thursday, with the latest and largest rising 8,000 meters, said Hadi Wijaya, the head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation.

The volcano had shown less activity since Monday’s deadly eruption killed nine people and injured 64 others.

Monday’s eruption affected more than 10,000 people in 10 villages. Nearly 6,000 villagers moved into makeshift emergency shelters after the eruption, which destroyed seven schools, nearly two dozen houses and a convent on the majority-Catholic island.

Volcanic materials, including smoldering stones, lava and hot, thumb-size fragments of gravel and ash were thrown up to 7 kilometers from the crater on Monday.

The country’s volcano monitoring agency increased Lewotobi Laki Laki’s alert status to the highest level and more than doubled the exclusion zone to a 7-kilometer radius on Monday, prohibiting any activity in that area.

About 6,500 people were evacuated in January after Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki began erupting, spewing thick clouds and forcing the government to close the island’s Fransiskus Xaverius Seda Airport. No casualties or major damage were reported, but the airport has remained closed due to seismic activity.

Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of a pair of stratovolcanoes in the East Flores district of East Nusa Tenggara province, known locally as the husband-and-wife mountains. “Laki laki” means man, while its mate is Lewotobi Perempuan, or woman.

The vulcanology center also said another volcano, Mount Marapi in West Sumatra province — one of the country’s most active volcanoes — erupted again on Thursday, spewing thick columns of ash at least three times and blanketing nearby villages with debris. No casualties were reported.

Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago of 280 million people. The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.