St. Vincent volcano erupts a day after thousands on the Caribbean island were ordered to evacuate

• La Soufriere, a volcano on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, erupted on Friday.
• Plumes reached 4.97 miles, and ash spread across the island, local emergency services said.
• It's the volcano's first eruption since 1979.

La Soufriere, a volcano on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, has erupted on Friday, the National Emergency Management Organization of St. Vincent and the Grenadines confirmed on Twitter.

"La Soufriere has moved into an explosive state. Plumes up to eight kilometers," the agency said.

NEMO SVG said minutes after the volcano erupted that ash fell at Argyle International Airport, on the other side of the 133-square-mile island.

Officials from NEMO encouraged people to leave the "red zone" of the volcano immediately, and as of Friday morning officials were still evacuating residents from the island.

As ash and smoke spread across the island on Friday afternoon, a second explosion sent ash 2.5 miles into the air, the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Center said on Twitter.

Friday's eruption marked the first time the mountain has erupted since April 1979.