Mount Agung erupted on Saturday evening and three times early Sunday, lighting its cone with an orange glow and sending ash 4,000 metres into the atmosphere.
The national board for disaster management said Bali’s international airport had closed for 24 hours and authorities would consider reopening it on Tuesday after evaluating the situation.
About 25,000 people living near the mountain have already left their homes and evacuated since Mount Agung first started to spew smoke on Tuesday.
“Continuous ash puffs are sometimes accompanied by explosive eruptions accompanied by a weak sound of boom,” the national board for disaster management wrote on Facebook. “The rays of fire are increasingly
observed at night. This indicates the potential for a larger eruption is imminent.”
The national disaster agency spokesman, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, called for people to stay calm.
“Bali’s airport has indeed been closed. We’re still coordinating the next steps,” airport spokesman Arie Ahsanurrohim said.
The Geological agency head, Kasbani, who goes by one name, said the alert level was raised at 6am on Monday because the volcano had shifted from steam-based eruptions to magmatic eruptions. However he said he was still not expecting a major eruption.
“We don’t expect a big eruption but we have to stay alert and anticipate,” he said.
Indonesia’s Volcano Observatory Notice for Aviation raised its aviation colour code from orange to red, indicating a further eruption with significant emission of volcanic ash into the atmosphere was imminent.
Australian airline Jetstar cancelled all flights in and out of Bali due to the ash cloud around the Mount Agung volcano. The decision on Monday was made on safety grounds and overturned earlier expectations that flights would go ahead.
“While these disruptions are frustrating, we will always put safety before schedule,” the carrier said in a statement. Virgin Australia was expected to follow suit.
Jetstar said it would update passengers around 7pm AEDT based on advice from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre.
An exclusion zone extending 7.5km from the crater remains in place following the evacuation of more than 185,000 people after an eruption in September, and authorities have warned anyone remaining within it to leave the area. About 25,000 to 30,000 people were reportedly still unable to return home.
The September eruption was the first sign of activity by Mount Agung in more than 50 years and prompted the highest alert level. In 1963 a major eruption killed about 1,100 people.
The volcano is Bali’s highest peak and a popular hiking destination for tourists, who have been warned to stay away for now. Several villages that rely on the tourism trade are within the exclusion zone and fear for the economic impact on their livelihoods.
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