Hundreds of people have been evacuated from communities in southern Guatemala after the Fuego volcano erupted, sending towering clouds of ash and gas into the sky and triggering fast-moving lava and pyroclastic flows.
Guatemalan authorities ordered evacuations in communities surrounding the volcano as the eruption intensified throughout Monday.
Claudinne Ogaldes, executive secretary of Guatemala’s disaster management agency, CONRED, said the eruption began on Monday morning before increasing in intensity later in the day, prompting evacuation orders for two villages near the volcano.
Live images showed massive plumes of ash and gas billowing above the volcano while lava and pyroclastic flows raced down its slopes.
“The eruption is increasing its level of explosiveness. A lava fountain between 200 and 300 metres (650 to 1,000 feet) has developed over the crater,” Guatemala’s Institute of Seismology, Volcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology (INSIVUMEH) said in a report.
CONRED said authorities were evacuating the community of El Porvenir and the nearby hamlet of Las Lajitas as a precautionary measure, affecting about 50 families, or roughly 250 people.
The agency also issued an orange alert and warned that volcanic ash could spread to nearby towns.
National Route 14, a major highway that passes near the volcano, was closed, while the Education Ministry suspended classes in surrounding communities.
Fuego is one of Central America’s most active volcanoes. In June 2018, one of its deadliest eruptions killed hundreds of people, destroyed an entire village and affected an estimated 1.7 million people, according to authorities.