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Colombia's Galeras Volcano Erupts

   VOA News 25 August 2010

   Colombia's  Galeras  volcano  has  started  spewing smoke and ash, but
   government officials say thousands of nearby residents are refusing to
   evacuate.
   Colombian  officials  issued a red alert -- the highest level of alert
   --  Wednesday  after  the  volcano began erupting in the early morning
   hours.
   Officials  also ordered the evacuation of thousands of people who live
   near  the  volcano,  not  far  from the country's southern border with
   Ecuador.   But  officials say, so far, only a few hundred people have
   left.
   The  president of the local Red Cross told Reuters Television that few
   people  noticed  when  the  eruption began because the volcano did not
   make any noise.
   The  Galeras  volcano  is more than 4,000 meters above sea level.  It
   last  erupted  in  January,  and has been spewed smoke and ash several
   times over the past few years.
   The  volcano killed at least nine people when it erupted in 1993, just
   as a scientific team was examining the volcano's crater.

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   Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

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