JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- A volatile volcano in northern Indonesia erupted Sunday, spewing smoke and ash that caused muddy rain to fall in nearby villages, an official said.

Mount Lokon in North Sulawesi province rumbled as heavy rain fell around its cloud-covered crater, local monitoring official Farid Ruskanda Bina said.

He said the sound was heard 5 kilometers (3 miles) away but the height of the eruption was not visible.

The ash made the rain thick and muddy in six villages, Bina said.

"Soldiers are distributing masks to the villagers," he said.

There was no plan for evacuations because the nearest villages are beyond the danger area, he said.

More than 33,000 people live along the fertile slopes of the 5,741-foot (1,750-meter) mountain.

Mount Lokon is one of about 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia. Its last major eruption in 1991 killed a Swiss hiker and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 240 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanoes because it sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines.</s>Authorities closed the gates to Mount Rinjani, one of Indonesia's most visited active volcanoes on the resort island of Lombok, next to Bali, and told visitors to keep at least three km away.

The erupting cone is called Barujari, a volcano within Mount Rinjani.

The Disaster Mitigation Agency said 1,023 tourists, including 639 foreigners, were in Mount Rinjani National Park when the volcano erupted on Tuesday afternoon, coating nearby vegetation with ash.

"Hundreds of tourists have exited Mount Rinjani and they are in good condition," spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Wednesday.

Daniel Rosang, an official at the park, said he estimated there were up to 50 climbers still on the volcano and he believed they were safe.</s>Mount Barujari on Lombok Island, Indonesia, spewed out a column of ash into the skies on Tuesday afternoon, sending the area into a panic. Authorities have evacuated over 1,100 tourists from the island and are now searching for several hundred others, Indonesia’s disaster agency confirmed Wednesday.

The volcano sits within the Mount Rinjani caldera. Its eruption delayed flights from airports in Lombok and nearby Bali, a well-known tourist hotspot. The ash column rose as high as 6,500 feet, the Wall Street Journal reports.

He added that local agencies are cooperating with each other to prepare masks, warn residents to stay alert and prevent problems from volcanic ash, according to the Jakarta Post.

So far, no injuries from the incident have been reported.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesperson for the country’s disaster management agency, said that some 400 foreign and local tourists were registered climbers on the volcano, leaving from Sembalun around 7 miles from the crater.

 Heronimus Guru, deputy chief of operations at Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency, said that 120 tourists had been found and were on their way down Barujari.

Farms and trees in the volcano’s immediate vicinity were coated with a layer of ash, but nearby towns and villages are in no immediate danger, Nugroho assured.

In early September, an earthquake in Dompu prompted volcanic activity on Mount Barujari, also disrupting normal activity.

Mount Rinjani is one of 130 active volcanoes in the archipelago and is the second highest volcano in the country at 12,224 feet high. Its caldera is partially filled by a crater lake called Segara Anak or Anak Laut, meaning “Child of the Sea,” because of its blue color. The caldera also contains hot springs and is considered to be a sacred site by some religions.

Indonesia is very vulnerable to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes because of its location directly on the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”</s>Mount Rinjani, the second highest volcano in the country, stands 3,726 metres high and has a lake in its boiler.

Rescue teams were dispatched on Wednesday to evacuate nearly 400 tourists after a volcano erupted at Mount Rinjani in Lombok, Indonesia.

Mount Barujari that forms part of Rinjani was seen emitting a 2,000-metre-high column of smoke on Tuesday afternoon, prompting authorities to cordon off and evacuate the area within a radius of 3 km around the crater, Efe news agency reported.

Rinjani, the second highest volcano in Indonesia standing 3,726 metres high, attracts thousands of tourists annually for a three-day trek to the mountain top, which has a lake in its boiler.

A disaster mitigation agency spokesman, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said nearly 400 foreign and local tourists were registered since Sunday to climb the mountain.

“We are still searching for about 389 other tourists, mostly foreign tourists, to find out their condition and to evacuate them immediately,” the Guardian quoted Mr. Nugroho as saying.

There have been no reports of injuries.

Indonesian authorities in October 2015 issued a volcanic alert after an eruption forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 people, including tourists and residents.

Last year, Mt. Rinjani erupted several times emitting columns of smoke and ash forcing the Lombok airport to shut down and suspend flights in the neighbouring island of Bali.

Tuesday’s eruption delayed many flights between Australia and Bali for several hours, although flight schedules are back to normal now.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of high seismic and volcanic activity which is home to more than 400 volcanoes, including at least 129 that are still active and 65 qualified as dangerous.</s>Jakarta, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities say they have evacuated most tourists from Mount Barujari on Lombok island after it spewed a massive column of ash into the atmosphere.

The volcano, a popular attraction that is known as the Child of Rinjani because it sits within the Mount Rinjani caldera, erupted without warning on Tuesday afternoon, delaying flights from the international airport on nearby Bali. The ash column reached 2,000 meters (6,560 feet).

Heronimus Guru, deputy operations chief at Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency, said Wednesday that the remaining tourists, about 50 people who are mostly foreigners, were heading down the mountain.

Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said more than 1,100 tourists left the Mount Rinjani area on Tuesday. A similar number left Wednesday.

There have been no reports of injuries from the eruption.

Nugroho said government scientists have declared a danger zone of 3 kilometers (1.6 miles) around the crater and raised the volcano’s alert to the third highest level, but some tourists did not immediately heed warnings to leave because they wanted to take photos or videos of the eruption.

The eruption interrupted flights for several hours at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, airport officials said.

Farms and trees around the 3,726-meter (12,224-foot) -high volcano were coated in a thin layer of gray ash, but nearby towns and villages were not in danger, Nugroho said.

Rinjani is among about 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia. The archipelago is prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”</s>JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities are searching for several hundred tourists after Mount Barujari on Lombok island spewed a massive column of ash into the atmosphere and have evacuated more than 1,100 others, the country’s disaster agency said Wednesday.

The volcano, also known as the Child of Rinjani because it sits within the Mount Rinjani caldera, erupted without warning on Tuesday afternoon, delaying flights from airports in Lombok and nearby Bali. The ash column reached 2,000 meters (6,560 feet).

Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said that nearly 400 foreign and local tourists had been registered since Sunday to climb the mountain, leaving from Sembalun monitoring post, about 11 kilometers (7 miles) from the crater.

“We are still searching for about 389 other tourists, mostly foreign tourists, to find out their condition and to evacuate them immediately,” Nugroho said.

There have been no reports of injuries from the eruption.

The eruption interrupted flights for several hours at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, about 135 kilometers (84 miles) from Lombok, and Selaparang airport in Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara province, located on Lombok Island.

Farms and trees around the 3,726-meter (12,224-feet) -high volcano were coated in a thin layer of gray ash, but nearby towns and villages were not in danger, Nugroho said.

Rinjani is among about 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia. The archipelago is prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”</s>Indonesian authorities are searching for several hundred tourists after Mount Barujari on Lombok island spewed a massive column of ash into the atmosphere and have evacuated more than 1,100 others, the country’s disaster agency said on Wednesday.

The volcano, also known as the Child of Rinjani because it sits within the Mount Rinjani caldera, erupted without warning on Tuesday afternoon, delaying flights from airports on the islands of Lombok and Bali. The ash column reached 2,000 meters (6,560 feet).

Disaster Mitigation Agency Spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said nearly 400 foreign and local tourists had been registered since Sunday to climb the mountain, leaving from Sembalun monitoring post, about 11 kilometers (7 miles) from the volcano’s crater.

There have been no reports of injuries from the eruption.

Heronimus Guru, the deputy operations chief at Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency, said on Wednesday that about 120 tourists, mainly foreigners, had been located so far and were heading down the mountain.

The eruption interrupted flights for several hours at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali and Lombok International Airport.

Farms and trees around the 3,726-meter (12,224-foot)-high volcano were coated in a thin layer of gray ash, but nearby towns and villages were not in danger, Nugroho said.

Rinjani is among about 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia. The archipelago is prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes because of its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”</s>JAKARTA: Rescuers in Indonesia were dispatched Wednesday to evacuate nearly 400 tourists, most of them foreigners, after a volcano erupted at one of the country’s most popular hiking destinations, an official said.

Mount Barujari began erupting late Tuesday afternoon, sending columns of ash and smoke shooting 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) into the sky over Lombok island, a tourist hotspot to the immediate east of Bali.

Nearly 400 people were recorded as hiking near Barujari — a smaller cone within the crater of Mount Rinjani — when it began erupting, prompting plans for their immediate evacuation, said national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

“A rescue team has been sent to Mount Rinjani to evacuate the tourists. They set off on Wednesday morning,” he said.

Hikers have been told to keep at least 3 kilometres from the smouldering volcano, a key attraction on the multi-day trek to the summit of Mount Rinjani made by thousands of tourists every year.

Nugroho said 389 hikers were recorded as having entered the national park since Sunday, the overwhelming majority of them foreigners.

While most would have taken the official route to the summit, rescue teams suspected some hikers may have gone off-piste, Nugroho added.

The threat level of the volcano was upgraded Tuesday as Barujari sent plumes of smoke and hot ash into the atmosphere, but remains two steps from the highest-risk category.

There were no flight disturbances recorded on Wednesday due to the ash clouds, transport ministry spokesman Hemi Pramuraharjo told AFP.

Some flights to and from the nearby resort island of Bali were cancelled overnight, but Lombok’s international airport remains unaffected.

Flight disruptions due to drifting ash clouds are not uncommon in Indonesia, which sits on a belt of seismic activity known as the Pacific Ring of Fire and is home to 130 active volcanoes.

An eruption at Mount Rinjani last month forced the closure of Lombok airport and disrupted some flights to neighbouring Bali.-AFP</s>JAKARTA: Rescuers in Indonesia were dispatched Wednesday to evacuate nearly 400 tourists, most of them foreigners, after a volcano erupted at one of the country’s most popular hiking destinations, the Lombok island east of Bali, an official said.

Mount Barujari began erupting late Tuesday afternoon, sending columns of ash and smoke shooting 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) into the sky.

Nearly 400 people were recorded as hiking near Barujari — a smaller cone within the crater of Mount Rinjani — when it began erupting, prompting plans for their immediate evacuation, said national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

Hikers have been told to keep at least 3 kilometers from the smouldering volcano, a key attraction on the multi-day trek to the summit of Mount Rinjani made by thousands of tourists every year.

Nugroho said 389 hikers were recorded as having entered the national park since Sunday, the overwhelming majority of them foreigners.

The threat level of the volcano was upgraded Tuesday as Barujari sent plumes of smoke and hot ash into the atmosphere, but remains two steps from the highest-risk category.

Some flights to and from the nearby resort island of Bali were cancelled overnight, but Lombok’s international airport remains unaffected.

Flight disruptions due to drifting ash clouds are not uncommon in Indonesia, which sits on a belt of seismic activity known as the Pacific Ring of Fire and is home to 130 active volcanoes.

An eruption at Mount Rinjani last month forced the closure of Lombok airport and disrupted some flights to neighboring Bali.</s>Hundreds of climbers have been brought down safely from the slopes of an Indonesian volcano that erupted this week, the disaster agency said on Thursday, although the fate of several daredevil tourists who declined to leave was not clear.

More than 1,000 tourists including 639 foreigners were in Mount Rinjani National Park when Barujari, a smaller volcano within Mount Rinjani, began erupting on Tuesday, sending a plume of ash into the sky which fell back to coat vegetation.

"They have all come down now. The Rinjani caldera is now clear," agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told Reuters via mobile phone text message.

The crater is about 8-10 hours walk from the entrance to the park.

The agency said in a statement on Wednesday several tourists hoping to document the eruption had declined to leave and hidden from rescue workers.

"They knew the dangers," it said.

Nugroho was not available for comment on their fate on Thursday.

Mount Rinjani, on the island of Lombok, just to the east of Bali island, is one of Indonesia's most visited active volcanoes.

Authorities have closed the park gates and told visitors to keep at least three km (two miles) away.
Indonesia authorities evacuate over 1,000 tourists from the island of Lombok after Mount Barujari erupts.