More than 2,000 people have fled their homes located near a volcano that has been erupting this week in North Sulawesi province of Indonesia, officials said on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.
Arnold Poly senior official of the provincial disaster management and mitigation agency said that the people started leaving their homes on Monday as the authorities said that the seismic activity of the Mount Lokon is still threatening. A sport stadium and school buildings have been shifted to facilitate the evacuees, according to the official.
"Here are 2,016 people in the evacuation center now, today more people leave their homes ad we expect the number of evacuee will be more and more," he told Xinhua by phone from the province. "The mount seems quite, but we do not know whether it is collecting strength for a higher explosion or declining seismic activity, therefore many people escape, " said Arnold.
Mount Lokon of 1,750 meters high has been on top alert since Sunday evening and keeps having small eruption until Wednesday. The Volcanology agency declared 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) dangerous zone.
There are over 28,000 people living near the volcano are potential to be affected by the volcano eruption, according to the National Disaster Management Agency.
Farid Ruskan Bina official at the post for monitoring Mount Lokon located 5 about kilometers from the volcano told Xinhua by phone that the latest small eruption occurred at 07 : 10 a.m. local time (0110 GMT) and the seismic activity has slightly declined. The ash still went up to 150 meters and moved to the north, he said. "But the mount is still dangerous, it is better to stay away from the evacuation zone," he said.
Mount Lokon is one of 129 Indonesia's active volcanos, its last explosion was in 1991 that killed one Swiss hiker and displaced thousands others.