Foreign Office warns British tourists to ‘stay 7km away’ from fresh travel no-go zone
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“This is an exclusion zone put in place by the local authorities. Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupted on 3 November 2024.”
The eruption on Monday affected more than 10,000 people in 10 villages.
About 4,400 villagers moved into makeshift emergency shelters after the eruption, which destroyed seven schools, nearly two dozen houses and a convent on the majority-Catholic island.
On Monday, volcanic materials, including smouldering rocks, lava, hot, thumb-size gravel, and ash, were thrown up to seven kilometres (4.3 miles) from its crater.
While visiting the devastated areas, officials found craters where rocks fell during eruptions, up to 13 metres (43 feet) wide and five metres (16 feet) deep, in several places, including a destroyed school.
Indonesia, a country of around 280 million people, is home to 120 active volcanoes.
The nation is prone to a range of natural disasters, including earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis, due to its position on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.
Exclusion zones are also currently in place around several other volcanoes across the island nation, and the UK Foreign Office is also urging British tourists to avoid them.
