A volcano in eastern Indonesia has erupted at least a thousand times this month, according to an official report, as efforts were under way to evacuate thousands of villagers living near the rumbling mountain.
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Mount Ibu, on the remote island of Halmahera in North Maluku province, sent a column of smoke up to four kilometres (2.5 miles) into the sky in an eruption on Wednesday.
Indonesian officials raised its alert status to the highest level and called for the evacuation of 3,000 people living in six nearby villages.
It was one of 1,079 eruptions by the volcano recorded since January 1 by Indonesia’s Geological Agency, sending columns of ash reaching between 0.3 and 4 kilometres above its peak, according to the agency’s data released on Sunday.
The latest big eruption occurred on Sunday at 1.15am local time as it spewed a towering cloud of ash 1.5 kilometres into the air.
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“The ash was grey, with moderate to thick intensity, drifting southwest. A loud rumbling sound was heard all the way to Mount Ibu Observation Post,” the agency said in a statement.
