TOKYO — Hundreds of people living near a Japanese volcano that has been spewing columns of smoke and ash thousands of metres into the air were forced to evacuate their homes Monday, a local official said.
More than 600 residents of the town of Takaharu in Miyazaki prefecture, on the eastern outskirts of the erupting Mount Shinmoedake, were sheltering in school gyms and community halls, an official said.
Municipal authorities had issued an evacuation advisory for 1,158 residents in high-risk districts near the 1,421-metre (4,689-foot) volcano earlier Monday.
The mountain in the Kirishima range in southwestern Japan has been belching smoke and ash into the air since late Wednesday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
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A dome of lava grow larger inside the crater as volcanic ash billows from Mount Shinmoedake in the Kirishimna range on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu Monday, Jan. 31, 2011. (AP-Yonhap News) |
The agency has widened the area that it fears could be hit by a torrent of high-temperature gas and ash from two kilometres (1.24 miles) to three kilometres from the peak.
It added that the dome of lava inside the volcano's crater, which grows as pressure increases from below, was now five times larger than it had been on Friday.
The volcano's first major eruption for 52 years has seen train services and flights suspended in the area. Television footage showed the volcano billowing grey smoke into the sky, as residents cleared ash from streets with shovels.
A nearby observatory has raised its five-scale warning level on the volcano from two to three, restricting access to the entire mountain.
In April last year the eruption of the Eyjafjoell volcano in Iceland dispersed a vast cloud of ash which triggered a massive airspace shutdown that affected more than 100,000 flights and eight million passengers.
(AFP)
<한글 기사>
日 신모에 화산 인근 주민에 대피권고
최근 폭발적 분화가 계속되고 있는 일본 규슈 (九州) 남쪽 가고시마(鹿兒島)현과 미야자키(宮崎)현에 걸쳐 있는 기리시마(霧島)산 신모에(新燃)봉(1천421m) 인근 주민 500여 가구에 대피권고가 내려졌다.
31일 마이니치신문 등 현지언론에 따르면 신모에봉 화산을 관할하고 있는 미야자키(宮崎)현의 지방자치단체인 다카하라초(高原町)는 30일 밤 "화산이 매우 위험한 상태에 있다"면서 인근 주민 512가구 1천150명에 대해 피난을 권고했다.
일본 기상청에 따르면 화산 화구(火口)의 용암 돔이 직경 약 500ｍ(화구의 직경 은 약 700ｍ)까지 부풀어 오른 것으로 관측됐다.
지난 26일 분화가 시작된 신모에봉 화산 인근 지역에서 대피 권고가 내려진 것은 이번이 처음이다.
기상청은 지난 28일부터 직경 수십ｍ의 용암돔이 지하로부터 마그마의 공급을 받으며 부풀어오르기 시작해 향후 폭발적 분화 활동이 지속될 경우 화구로부터 3㎞정도까지 흘러내릴 우려가 있는 것으로 보고 있다.
(연합뉴스)
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