Red alert as Bali volcano eruptions dust resorts in ash, disrupt flights

A volcano on the Indonesian island of Bali has rumbled into life with a series of eruptions that temporarily disrupted some international flights to the popular tourist destination and dusted nearby resorts and villages with a thin layer of ash.

Mount Agung erupted on Saturday evening and three times early Sunday, lighting its cone with an orange glow and sending ash 4,000 metres into the atmosphere.

It was still gushing and the dark grey clouds are moving toward the neighbouring island of Lombok, a direction that is away from Bali’s airport, where nearly all scheduled domestic and international flights were continuing Sunday.

Indonesia also upgraded its Volcano Observatory Notice for Aviation (VONA) to red, its highest warning, and said the ash cloud top could reach 6,142 metres or higher.

Australian airline Jetstar, which cancelled nine flights to and from Bali on Saturday evening, said most of its flights would operate normally Sunday after its senior pilots assessed it was safe to fly.

However it warned that the movement of ash cloud was highly unpredictable and flights could still be cancelled at short notice.