Mount Agung: flights cancelled after Bali volcano erupts

Volcano spews ash over popular tourist island but authorities yet to raise the alert level

Mount Agung, pictured erupting in 2018. The Bali volcano is again spewing ash on to the tourist hotspot.

Bali’s airport has cancelled flights following an eruption of the Mount Agung volcano, which spread ash over the south of the Indonesian island.

The national disaster agency said Friday night’s eruption lasted four minutes and 30 seconds, spreading lava and incandescent rocks about 3km from the crater.

Nine villages experienced thick ash fall. But the agency said it wasn’t raising the alert level for the volcano and its exclusion zone remains a 4km radius around the crater.

The directorate general of air transportation said four flights to Bali were diverted and five flights out of the popular tourist destination were cancelled because of volcanic ash.

Agung became active again in 2017 after more than a half century of slumber following a major eruption in 1963.