A roaring volcano off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, causing an avalanche of blazing gas clouds to flow down its slopes during the eruption.
There were no reports of injuries.
Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation said Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province emitted smoke and ash up to 3,280 feet into the air, while a hot ash cloud moved 2.8 miles southeast of Indonesia.
There were no fatalities, said Armin Putra, an official at the monitoring center in Sinabung.
He said villagers were advised to stay 5 km from the crater and should be aware of the dangers of lava.
The alert was maintained at the second-highest level as authorities monitored the volcano closely after sensors detected increased activity in recent weeks.
The 8,530-foot high mountain has been rumbling since last year.
It sent volcanic material more than 16,400 feet into the sky and deposited ash into nearby villages when it erupted earlier this month.
About 30,000 people have been forced to flee their homes around Sinabung in recent years.
Sinabung had been asleep for four centuries before exploding in 2010, killing two people.
Another eruption in 2014 killed 17 people, while seven people died in an eruption in 2016.
The volcano, one of only two volcanoes currently erupting in Indonesia, has emerged sporadically since then.
Sinabung is one of more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, and is prone to seismic disturbance due to its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is the volcanic arc and fault line that surrounds the Pacific Basin.
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