A volcano in southern Chile has erupted for the first time in more than five decades, sending a thick plume of ash and smoke more than 12 miles into the sky.
Chile’s Onemi emergency office declared a red alert following the sudden eruption, the first since 1972, of Calbuco last night, which occurred about 625 miles south of Santiago, the capital, near the tourist town of Puerto Varas.
The first eruption occurred at around 6pm local time (21:00 GMT), showed a spectacular mushroom-shaped cloud of ash and smoke, that turned red as the sun went down. About 4,000 people had so far moved out of the area and an evacuation radius of 12 miles has been established.
There are no reports of deaths, missing persons or injuries, Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo said. He urged residents to evacuate and warned of possible lahars, a mix of water and rock fragments that flow down a volcano’s slopes and river valleys.
