Chile prepared to evacuate another town in its remote Patagonian south on Monday, as ash spewed from a snowcapped volcano for a fourth day after its first eruption in thousands of years. President Michelle Bachelet made her way to the small town of Futaleufu, the second town to be evacuated, as residents packed what belongings they could carry. Futaleufu lies around 810 miles (1,300 km) south of the capital Santiago and 100 miles (160 km) southeast of the erupting Chaiten volcano, which is some distance from Chile's vital mining industry further north.

Covered in thick ash, the Patagonian community of Chaiten was a ghost town on Saturday as a volcano spewed ash a day after its first eruption in thousands of years forced nearly 4,500 people to flee. Authorities have evacuated most of the southern Chilean town's residents since Friday, sending many by boat to Chiloe Island farther north and to Puerto Montt on the mainland. Some are staying in guesthouses, while schools have been turned into makeshift shelters packed with stores of bottled water after a blanket of volcanic ash contaminated ground water.

Some 1,500 people were evacuated late Friday as the Chaiten volcano in southern Chile erupted, hurling hot rocks and belching clouds of ash into the sky. The thick clouds of ash that covered the region also spread to towns in the southern Argentine province of Chubut, where authorities closed schools and issued warnings due to low visibility on some roads. Yet despite the fireworks at the volcano, located some 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) south of Santiago, there were no reports of casualties or damage, Chile's Office of National Emergencies reported.

Indonesian authorities have raised the alert level for a volcano near the country's third largest city following increased volcanic activity, a volcanology centre official said on Thursday. More than 100 volcanic tremors were recorded from Mount Papandayan in West Java on Wednesday, although there were no visible signs it would erupt soon, said Estu Kriswati from the volcanology centre in the nearby city of Bandung. "The volcano has shown increased activity since April 9 but it reached its peak yesterday," she said.

About 600 people have been evacuated in eastern Indonesia after a volcano began spewing ash, a vulcanologist said on Wednesday. Mount Egon on Flores Island started to erupt late on Tuesday, emitting grey ash up to 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) above the crater, said Muhammad Hendrasto, head of monitoring at the volcanology office in Bandung on Java island. Authorities immediately raised the alert to orange, one notch below the highest level, and evacuated people living about 1.8 km (1 mile) from the peak of the volcano, he said.

Thousands Evacuated After Colombian Volcano Erupts COLOMBIA: April 16, 2008 BOGOTA - Thousands of Colombians were evacuated around the Nevado del Huila volcano in the southwest part of the country on Tuesday after an eruption of ash and gas that caused no damage, but put authorities on high alert. "Constant monitoring of the situation will be maintained," said a statement from Colombia's Interior Ministry. The volcano, in the province of Huila, is not located near any major coffee plantations integral to the economy of this part of the Andean country.

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