At least seven international flights from Indonesia’s resort island Bali have been cancelled, an airport official said on Friday, after a volcano in the archipelago nation’s east erupted, shooting dark ash eight kilometres into the sky.
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Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,703-metre (5,587-foot) twin-peaked volcano on the tourist island of Flores, erupted for 11 minutes and nine seconds late on Thursday, authorities said, raising the volcano’s alert status to the highest level.
As of 9.45am (local time) on Friday, “seven international flights had been cancelled, six of them are Jetstar flights bound to Australia and one Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur,” Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport spokesman, Andadina Dyah, said in a statement.
Several other flights – both domestic and international, including to Thailand, Singapore and Australia – have been delayed, it said.
The local airport in Maumere, on Flores, the closest to the volcano, has not been affected by the ash, according to the transport ministry.
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“The ash column was observed grey to black with thick intensity,” Indonesia’s volcanology agency said in a statement about the eruption, which began at around 11.00pm on Thursday.