Authorities in Guatemala have ordered evacuations after one of the country’s most active volcanos started erupting.
Images showed big clouds of gas and ash over the volcano as lava and pyroclastic flows rolled down the slopes of the Fuego volcano at great speed.
Part of the mountain range of the Sierra Madre, the Fuego volcano is about 16 km west of Antigua, one of Guatemala’s most popular tourist destinations.
The eruption started on Monday morning and increased during the day, which led to evacuation orders for two villages around the mountain, according to Claudinne Ogaldes, executive secretary of the Guatemalan disaster managing agency, CONRED.
A report Guatemalan Seismology, Vulcanology, Weather and Water Institute said: “The eruption increases its explosiveness level. A fountain of lava of between 200 and 300 meters (650 to 1,000 feet) has developed over the crater.”
CONRED said that authorities were evacuating El Porvenir and the hamlet of Las Lajitas as a preventive measure.
That would be around 50 families or 250 people. The agency declared an orange alert and warned of ashes spreading to nearby towns.
A major highway that passes close to the volcano, National Route 14, was closed. The Education Ministry suspended classes in nearby towns.
Hundreds of people were killed and a whole village was destroyed during a previous eruption on the Fuego volcano in June 2018.
That episode affected up to 1.7 million people, according to authorities.
The Fuego volcano is one of the most active in Guatemala. Another eruption in June last year spurred preventive evacuations.
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