JAKARTA - Indonesia issued a red alert Friday after Mount Karangetang on the island of Sulawesi erupted, sending lava and searing gas clouds down its slopes, a volcanologist said.

"We raised the volcano's status to the highest red alert level today at 5:45 pm (1045GMT) and ordered an evacuation in three villages on the slopes," government volcanologist Surono told AFP.

He said that the 1,784-metre (5,850-foot) mountain on the sparsely-populated island off North Sulawesi oozed lava, heat clouds and debris reaching as far as 3,800 metres away down its slopes.

Date of Incident

Friday, 10 August 2007, 16:02 local time (GMT+8).

General Information

Jakarta, Aug 20, 2007 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The Karangetang volcano on Siau island, Indonesia, has been spewing lava and hot ashes since Saturday, forcing more than 550 people living on its slope to evacuate, local press said Monday.

The volcano, which rises some 1,700 meters in Sitaro regency, North Sulawesi province, has been rumbling and spewing lava over the last few days, reported leading news website Detikcom.

The red lava visibly flowed from the crater during the nights, a local resident identified as Roy Katiandagho told the website.

The rain that poured the area Monday