3,500 people evacuated after Chilean volcano erupts

SOUTHERN Chile’s Puyehue volcano has erupted for the first time in half a century, prompting evacuation orders for 3,500 people, authorities said.

The National Service of Geology and Mining said the explosion that sparked the eruption also produced a 10km-high column of gas, hours after warning of strong seismic activity.

“You can see the fire [in the volcano] and a plume of smoke, and there’s a strong smell of sulphur,” top Los Rios region official Juan Andres Varas told reporters.

The government, which earlier ordered the evacuation of 600 people, expanded that number to 3,500 people to be relocated to shelters in safe areas.

Authorities issued a red alert, the maximum warning level, for the area and a border crossing between Argentina and Chile was closed.

A cloud of ash could be seen in the Patagonian resort town of Bariloche, Argentina, about 100km east of the volcano.

“We’re trying to stop car traffic and ask that people stay at home and close their doors and windows to prevent the volcanic ash from coming in. The city’s airport was also closed,” Carlos Hidalgo, the town’s communications secretary, said.

Nearby localities were also affected, said Hidalgo,

The city of 50,000 people welcomes thousands of foreign tourists each year to its lakes and mountain scenery.

Located in the Andes mountains, Puyehue is 870km south of the capital Santiago in the Cordon Caulle complex nestled in the Andes mountains.

Its last major eruption was in 1960, following a magnitude 9.5 earthquake.

Yeimi Obando, a professor who was evacuated, told National Television of Chile that people “are very worried” about the effect of ash on their cattle and other animals.

“Ash was dumped like a snowstorm. The city is covered in gray ash,” he told TN television.

The city’s airport, which was closed during the emergency, remained closed yesterday and Flagship airline Aerolineas Argentinas cancelled flights.