The Merapi volcano in Indonesia erupted today, spewing 7km of volcanic ash, the country’s disaster management agency announced.

The eruption of the volcano located in the Yogyakarta Special Region occurred at around 12 noon local time (07:00 Greek time) and a 1.5 kilometer lava flow was observed, according to the authorities.

Residents of a nearby community were warned to stop any activity in the danger zones, i.e. within a radius of three to seven kilometers from the volcano’s crater, the Indonesian disaster management agency said in a statement.

The 2,963-meter Merapi volcano is one of Indonesia’s most active and was already at the country’s second-highest alert level.

Yuliando, a local monitoring station official, said authorities have not moved to evacuate residents.

He added that if there is a worsening of the situation and the safety distance exceeds 7 kilometers “it is possible that residents will be advised to evacuate the area”.

Indonesia, which is located on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, has more volcanoes than any other country in the world. Merapi’s most recent violent eruption occurred in 2010, killing over 350 people.