Russian villages engulfed in ash after volcanic eruption

Lava and steam are visible during the Shiveluch eruption (Yury Demyanchuk, The Russian Academy of Sciences’ Vulcanology Institute via AP)

A volcano has erupted in far eastern Russia, spewing clouds of dust 12 miles into the sky and covering broad areas with ash.

The ash cloud from the eruption of Shiveluch, one of the Kamchatka Peninsula’s most active volcanoes, extended more than 310 miles north west and engulfed several villages in grey volcanic dust.