11,000 people have been evacuated as tremors shake Mount Agung volcano in Bali

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September 22, 2017 7:17 PM

Gusts of visible smoke escaped from the top of the active volcano and seismic tremors shook the ground. The region's alert status is currently at 4 out of 4.

After five decades of quiet, Bali's Mount Agung could be poised to explode.

More than 11,000 residents have been evacuated from villages near the active volcano, located about 50 miles northeast of Kuta, after gusts of visible smoke escaped from its top and seismic tremors shook the ground.

At around 10:30 a.m. ET on Friday, officials raised the alert status for Mount Agung from a level 3 to 4, the highest level.

"Volcanic activity remains high and there are indications of magma rising to the surface and causing tremors," said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho of the National Disaster Management Agency.

"There should be zero public activity within the specified radius in case there is an eruption," Nugroho said.

Some residents in villages at the foot of Mount Agung said they were reluctant to leave immediately. Others gathered to watch the volcano.

"I'm here with my husband. We need to feed the animals so that's what we're doing first," villager Wayan Suarda told national television station tvOne.

Others packed their belongings into trucks for evacuation, while more stopped to watch as clouds of white smoke rose from the crater, which is around 9,840 feet above sea level.

Indonesia straddles the Pacific Ring of Fire, where several tectonic plates meet and cause 90% of the world's seismic activity, according to the US Geological Survey.

Indonesia has nearly 130 active volcanoes, more than any other country.

A series of eruptions at Mount Agung between 1963 and 1964 killed more than 1,000 people and injured hundreds.

(Reporting by Reuters stringer in Denpasar and Kartika in Jakarta; Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Paul Tait)

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