Mount Agung in Karangasem erupted once again at 6:25pm yesterday evening, and locals living in the surrounding villages reported hearing a loud roar from the volcano just before.
The sound was reportedly loud enough to panic several people who fled their homes to gather together at the village office in Ban, just north of Agung.
“They came down from their hamlet because they were worried,” said the head of the Karangasem Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), Ida Bagus Ketut Arimbawa, as quoted by Jawa Pos.
Residents of Besakih village, to the west of Agung, also heard the volcano rumble.
“The roar was so loud that [the ground] trembled. It was like a big lightning bolt,” said I Komang Kayun, a village resident, to Nusa Bali last night.
Several locations in the Ban area were also exposed to ash rain as a result of the eruption, which lasted for a little over two and a half minutes.
Agung’s alert status remains at Level III (standby) and authorities are urging local residents to stay calm. Even so, hikers, visitors and locals are still prohibited from trekking on Agung or entering the hazard zone which stretches a four kilometer radius around the peak crater.
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