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Smoke and ash rise from Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador. Patricio Realpe/AP/Press Association Images
Ecuador
Evacuations as Ecuador volcano erupts
Volcano’s last major eruption in 2006 killed six people.
AUTHORITIES IN ECUADOR evacuated and cordoned off an area close to the Tungurahua volcano after hot rocks, ash and gases began erupting from its crater yesterday.
The volcano has been throwing smoke and ash into the sky since yesterday, but there are no reports of injuries or damage to nearby villages.
The director of Ecuardor’s Geophysical Institute, Huge Yepez, said an 8-mile perimeter had been evacuated, NPR reports.
The institute says that seismic activity and “other manifestations at the surface” of the volcano have rapidly increased since early yesterday.
Ash erupting from the volcano last May caused the international airport at Guayaquil to shut down for a day, and in 2006, an eruption killed six people. In 1999 a major eruption saw 15,000 people evacuated. They could not return to their homes for a year, the AFP reports.
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