By IANS
Quito : A red alert has been sounded in southern Ecuador’s Chimborazo province after the Tungurahua volcano started spewing huge amounts of molten lava and rocks, Spain’s EFE news agency reported Thursday.
Authorities said five nearby villages were heavily damaged and more than 1,000 people evacuated to safety after the volcano became active Wednesday.
Director of Ecuador’s Geophysical Institute Hugo Yepez told Radio Quito a “large eruption” was in progress and the situation was very critical.
Recalling a similar eruption in 2006 that lasted for 15 hours, Yepez said the current situation “cannot last many hours because the internal chamber (within the mountain) and the (volcanic) gases have a finite size. We’re in the critical hours of the eruption”.
The towns most vulnerable to damage by hot ash and gases hurled from the volcano are those east of the Chambo and Pastaza Rivers, Yepez said.
Pablo Morillo, governor of Chimborazo province, where part of the Tungurahua volcano is located, said that a red alert had been declared in the districts of Guano and Penipe, adding that the situation “is serious”.
Military and police teams are working to get the remaining people out, he said.
Mayor of Chimborazo’s capital city Riobamba Angel Yanez said that ash had already begun falling over the city and several nearby areas, forcing schools to close.
According to Fausto Acosta, mayor of Banos, the largest city in the endangered zone, the town had not been evacuated and no alarm had been given there, and residents of Banos said that the volcano’s powerful explosions were rattling windowpanes.
Tungurahua is located 130 km southeast of the capital Quito and it has been active since 1999.