Mount Sinabung in Indonesia's North Sumatra erupted Thursday with a thick ash column spewed toward the east up to 2,000 meters above its peak, the country's Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center (PVMBG) reports by Xinhua news.

The official of the PVMBG Moh Nurul Asrori said the seismograph recorded the eruption at 11.19 a.m., on Thursday morning, which lasted for 319 seconds. The centre recommended that people should not move in the danger zone within a 3-km radius of the peak.

It also urged people to avoid rivers that originate in the mountain and to wear masks when they have to leave their homes to keep away from the contaminated air.

The last eruption this year took place in March. Mount Sinabung, situated in Karo district, has been rumbling since 2010.

Sixteen people were killed and thousands of others were forced to flee home when it erupted in 2014. In 2016, it erupted killing nine locals.

While on August 8, 2020, another eruption displaced tens of thousands of people and closed three villages. Sinabung is one of the 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, a vast-archipelagic nation home to over 17,500 islands.

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