JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) 鈥 Indonesia鈥檚 rumbling Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupted Monday, sending a column of volcanic materials as high as 18 kilometers (11 miles) into the sky and depositing ash on villages.
Indonesia鈥檚 Geology Agency said in a statement it recorded the volcano unleashing an avalanche of searing gas clouds down its slopes during the eruption. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The country鈥檚 volcano monitoring agency had increased the volcano鈥檚 alert status to the highest level after , and more than doubled an exclusion zone to a 7-kilometer (4.3-mile) radius since then as eruptions became more frequent.
An eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki in killed nine people and injured dozens. It also .
The 1,584-meter (5,197-foot) mountain is a twin volcano with Mount Lewotobi Perempuan in the district of Flores Timur.
Indonesia is an archipelago of 270 million people with frequent seismic activity. It has 120 active volcanoes and sits along the 鈥淩ing of Fire,鈥 a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
