By IANS,
Bogota : The Galeras volcano, located near San Juan de Pasto in southwestern Colombia, erupted Wednesday, but there were no immediate reports of any damage caused.
The alert on the volcano was raised from “orange” to “red”, the highest level which implies an “imminent or current eruption”. This made the authorities order evacuation of thousands of residents in nearby villages and towns, Martha Calvache, assistant director of the Colombian Geology and Mining Institute, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
“But it has not been possible to analyse the material coming out from the volcano, which could be associated to ashes or probably to lava,” Calvache said.
Galeras, located nine kilometres from San Juan de Pasto and 4,276 metres above sea level, has been active since many years, and in the past few days several earthquakes related to its activity had been reported.