Volcano gushing ash over Bali closes airport for a 2nd day

KARANGASEM, Indonesia — A volcano gushing towering columns of ash over an Indonesian tourist island closed the Bali international airport for a second day Tuesday, disrupting travel for tens of thousands, as authorities renewed their warnings for villagers to evacuate.

Mount Agung has been hurling clouds of white and dark gray ash about 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) above its cone since the weekend and lava is welling in the crater, sometimes reflected as an orange-red glow in the ash plumes. Its explosions can be heard about 7 1/2 miles away.

The local airport authority said Tuesday that closure for another 24 hours was required for safety reasons. Volcanic ash poses a deadly threat to aircraft, and ash from Agung is moving south-southwest toward the airport. Ash has reached a height of about 30,000 feet as it drifts across the island.

Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency raised the volcano’s alert to the highest level Monday and expanded an exclusion zone to 6 miles from the crater in places from the previous 4 1/2 miles. It said a larger eruption is possible, though a top government volcanologist has also said the volcano could continue for weeks at its current level of activity and not erupt explosively.

Agung’s last major eruption in 1963 killed about 1,100 people.

Authorities have told 100,000 people to leave their homes, though as of Monday tens of thousands stayed because they felt safe or didn’t want to abandon livestock.

“Authorities will comb the area to persuade them,” agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said at a news conference Monday. “If needed we will forcibly evacuate them.” About 25,000 people already have been living in evacuation centers since September when an increase in tremors sparked concerns.

Lava rising in the crater “will certainly spill over to the slopes,” Sutopo said.

Villager Putu Sulasmi said she fled with her husband and other family members to a sports hall that is serving as an evacuation center.