Western Japan's Sakurajima volcano erupts, evacuation guidance issued
File photo showing an aerial view of Mount Sakurajima, off the coast of Japan's southern city of Kagoshima. (Photo: AFP/Jiji Press)
TOKYO: A volcano on Japan's western major island of Kyushu, called Sakurajima, erupted at about 8.05pm on Sunday (Jul 24), the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) said, but media said there were no immediate reports of damage.
There were reports of volanic stones raining down at a distance of 2.5km from the volcano, NHK public television said. The eruption alert level has been raised to 5, the highest, from 3, with some areas advised to evacuate, NHK said.
Level 5 requires evacuation from the danger zone, according to JMA.
Sakurajima is 4km from Kagoshima city of Kyushu island. It is one of Japan's most active volcanoes and eruptions of varying levels are frequent. In 2019, it spewed ash 5.5km high.
Video footage from Sunday's eruption showed what appeared to be a red mass flowing down one side of the volcano, with red projectiles shooting out while smoke, hard to see in the darkness, billowed up.
Most of the city of Kagoshima is across the bay from the volcano but several residential areas within about 3km of the crater may be ordered to evacuate, NHK said.
Officials at Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's office were gathering information about the situation, it added.
