Japan issues evacuation order after volcano erupts

A violent volcanic eruption in southern Japan May 29 forced scores of people to evacuate and shot a huge column of ash high into the air.

Footage by the Japan Meteorological Agency captured the moment the plume rocketed from Mount Shindake on the far southern island of Kuchinoerabu.
      
The black cloud reached as high as 9,000 metres (29,500 feet), the agency said, and was accompanied by a five-minute volcanic quake.
      
Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said there were no reported injuries and that less than two hours after the eruption, most of the island's 137 inhabitants had moved to an evacuation centre, where they were waiting for coastguard boats.
      
Television pictures showed the after-effects of the pyroclastic flow, which had cascaded down the mountainside towards one of the island's harbours.
      
Grey ash blanketed the breakwaters and discoloured the sea.
      
Community leader Nobuaki Hayashi told NHK of how the eruption, which came around 10:00 am (0100 GMT) had blocked out the morning light.
      
"Dark smoke rose quite high, I couldn't tell how high. But it became dark outside," he told the network.
      
Others spoke of "a big bang" when the volcano burst into life.
      
The volcano has been under observation since an eruption last year, with a two-kilometre (one-mile) exclusion zone in place, but volcanologists on Friday rapidly raised the alert level to five -- the highest on the scale -- triggering the evacuation order.
      
"A volcanic eruption occurred at Shindake at 9:59 am. Along with this eruption, a pyroclastic flow reached the coastline" of the island, the weather agency said.
      
Sadayuki Kitagawa, director of the...