Indonesia's Mount Ibu erupts, spewing big ash cloud

A volcano located in Indonesia's eastern island of Halmahera erupted on Wednesday morning spewing a 4km high ash cloud, forcing authorities to raise the alert level in surrounding areas to the highest, officials said.

Mount Ibu erupted at 7.11am (10.11pm GMT Tuesday) for around two minutes, the country's volcanology agency said in a statement. Clouds of thick grey ash billowed into the sky leaning towards the west, said Muhammad Wahid, the agency's head.

"Residents and tourists should not have any activities within at least 5 km (3 miles) from the crater," he said.

Mount Ibu also erupted on Tuesday afternoon, spewing 3km high volcanic ash.

There are around 13,000 residents living near the volcano, said the spokesperson of Indonesia's disaster agency Abdul Muhari. However, there is no plan to evacuate the residents so far.

"Today's eruption has not yet affected the residents directly. But we have deployed personnel just in case evacuation is needed," he told Reuters.

Ibu's activities follow a series of eruptions of different volcanoes in Indonesia, which sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and has 127 active volcanoes.

Ibu had a series of eruptions last year. In May last year, it had forced the evacuation of people living in seven nearby villages.