Indonesia Orders Mass Evacuations After Volcanic Activity Reaches New Highs

REUTERS/YT Haryono

More than 15,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate on the island of Sumatra where authorities have raised the emergency alert for volcanic activity to the highest level, Reuters reports.

Mount Sinabung erupted eight times in a just few hours on Sunday, the AFP reports. The volcano - which has been erupting on and off over the last two months - spewed hot ash and rocks several miles into the sky.

The National Disaster Agency expects there will more eruptions that are also more intense, and is calling for people that live within 3 miles of the volcano to leave the area.

No casualties have been reported from the latest eruptions, according to the AFP.

The mountains rumblings have been growing stronger since September, when it started spewing ash and lava for the first time since 2010. Before then, the volcano had been silent for at least a few hundred years.