Vanuatu has declared a state of emergency and evacuated thousands of residents from an island in the Pacific archipelago after a volcanic eruption rained rocks and ash on nearby homes, reports and officials said聽Tuesday.
After weeks of rumbling, activity from the Manaro Voui volcano 鈥� at the center of the northern island of Ambae 鈥� increased in recent days, the Vanuatu Meteorology and Geo-Hazards Department said.
The department聽on Saturday聽raised the alert level from three to four, which represents a 鈥渕oderate eruption state鈥�, and warned of 鈥渇lying rocks and volcanic gas鈥� affecting villages up to 6.5 kilometers (four miles) from Manaro Voui.
Villages further afield could also be exposed to ash falls and acid rain, it said.
Schools were shut and more than 7,000 people 鈥� 70 percent of Ambae鈥檚 population 鈥� were being evacuated, Vanuatu National Disaster Management Office鈥檚 director Shedrack Welegtabit told the Vanuatu Daily Post聽Tuesday.
The government has also allocated funds to help the evacuees amid reports of food and water shortages, the Vanuatu Digest added.
The New Zealand Defence Force told Fairfax NZ it was surveying the island聽Tuesday聽to determine the risks of a large eruption.
Thousands of people were 聽evacuated when the volcano last erupted in 2005.
Vanuatu, which has an estimated population of more than 270,000, was last ravaged by a natural disaster when Cyclone Pam caused severe damage in early 2015.
The volcano alert is the second in the Asia-Pacific at present. More than 57,000 people have fled a volcano on the Indonesian resort island of Bali amid fears of an imminent eruption.