Mount Io: Japan volcano erupts for first time in 250 years

Officials warn local residents of falling volcanic rocks and ash

A volcano in southern Japan has erupted for the first time in 250 years, blasting clouds of smoke and rocks into the sky.

Authorities have established a no-go zone around Mount Io, a 1,298m (4,258ft) high volcano on the island of Kyushu which last erupted in 1768.

Explosions briefly subsided on Friday, but officials cautioned residents in nearby towns against falling volcanic rocks and ash.

Japan’s Metrological Agency expanded a no-go zone which was previously just around the volcano’s crater to the entire mountain.

TV footage showed grayish smoke jetting from several spots on the side of the mountain in the Kirishima range, in a rural area about 985km (616 miles) from Tokyo.

The warning level for Mount Io was raised from 2 to 3 on Japan’s 5-level scale, with the Japan’s Meteorological Agency warning volcanic rocks could be hurled as far as 2km (1.2 miles).

Authorities have established a no-go zone around Mount Io (Kyodo/via REUTERS)

Mount Io has become the latest in a series of eruptions in Japan this year, which have killed one person.

In January, a member of the military was killed and 11 people injured, some critically, when the Kusatsu-Shirane volcano rained rocks down on skiers at a resort in central Japan.

Two months later, Shinmoedake – a volcano featured in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice, which sits in the same Kirishima range as Mount Io – shot smoke and ash thousands of metres into the sky.

Japan sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” with 110 active volcanoes and it monitors 47 of them around the clock.

In September 2014, 63 people were killed on Mount Ontake, the worst volcanic death toll in Japan for nearly 90 years.