Volcano erupted in Kamchatka: Villages covered with more than eight centimeters of ash, red warning for planes

One of Russia's most active volcanoes, Shiveluch, has erupted, spewing a huge ash cloud high into the sky and blanketing villages with plumes of volcanic dust, prompting an aviation alert around the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.

The Shiveluch volcano erupted shortly after midnight, while the ash cloud fell on an area of ​​108.000 square kilometers, according to the Kamchatka branch of geophysical research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, reports Reuters.

Streams of lava flowed from the volcano and melted snow, prompting mudslide warnings along a nearby highway, while villages were blanketed in drifts of gray ash as deep as 8,5 centimeters, the heaviest in 60 years.

"The ash reached a height of 20 kilometers, the ash cloud moved to the west and there was a very strong fall of ash on nearby villages," said the director of the Kamchatka branch of the Geophysical Institute, Danila Chebrov.

"Vulkan has been preparing for this for at least a year... and the process continues although it has calmed down a bit now," Chebrov said.

He said the volcano was likely to subside, but that further large ash clouds could not be ruled out. He said the lava flows should not reach local villages.

The Kamchatka Eruption Response Team (KVERT) issued a red alert for aviation, saying "ongoing activities could affect international and low-flying aircraft".

Some schools in Kamchatka have been closed, and residents have been ordered to stay indoors, Ust-Kamchatsky municipality president Oleg Bondarenko said on Telegram.

"Because what I just saw with my own eyes, it will be impossible for children to go to school, and in general, the presence of children here is questionable," said Bondarenko.

He said electricity has been restored, as has potable water.

One of the largest and most active volcanoes in Kamchatka, Shiveluch has had about 60 significant eruptions in the last 10.000 years, with the last major one occurring in 2007.

The volcano has two main parts, the smaller of which is Mladi Šiveluč, which scientists have reported has been extremely active in recent months, with a 2.800-meter peak jutting out from the 3.283-meter Stari Šiveluč.