Catastrophic volcano eruption is ‘imminent’ in Bali as more than 122,000 leave in mass evacuation

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The Indonesian island of Bali is being evacuated with a 12km wide exclusion zone in place, scientists have said that 800 tremors have been felt from Mount Agung since Wednesday.

Heather Handley, the earth sciences professor from Sydney’s Macuquarie University, said that the increased tremors suggest that an eruption is “imminent.”

“I would definitely be following the advice to stay outside the exclusion zone.”

Video I took of Mt. Agung spewing steam today in Bali, from inside the evacuation zone at 4:30 pm, 27 Sep. #agung #bali #volcano pic.twitter.com/sW4hI6sYN5

— wolfofbroward (@wolfofbroward) September 27, 2017

The last eruption was recorded in 1963, Mount Agung has been slowly building up to an eruption since August.

Nengah Bunter now 70, was among those who witnessed the disaster in 1963, he has been evacuated amid the fears of an “imminent” eruption.

Bunter said: “At night everything was shaking because of the earthquake, I evacuated on foot through dusty roads.

“Mount Agung had been erupting for three months when the government evacuated us. The lava and rocks had already been flowing near my house.”

More than 62,000 people live within the danger zone however, anyone living outside the zone have fled.

Officials have said that 122,490 people have left in fear and there are 500 makeshift shelters, the government said that they were prepared despite the rise in people evacuating the area.

A government spokesman, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said: “In general the evacuation is going well, the logistics supply is sufficient for the evacuees’ needs.”

Government officials estimate there are at least 30,000 cows within a 12-km danger zone, efforts to relocate them are ongoing as these animals are important to the residents.

Nugroho added: “We’ve set a target to evacuate 20,000 more cows from the affected areas.”

Kasbani, head volcanologist said: “If we look at the magnitude, it continues to increase, yesterday we also felt several quakes with the magnitude of three on the Richter scale.”

The Indonesian Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, said that Mount Agung was highly active on Thursday, there was a recording of 125 volcanic earthquakes from 12am to 6am.