Apr 20 (NHK) - The Meteorological Agency says an eruption has occurred at Mount Ioyama in southwestern Japan, spewing volcanic rocks around the crater.
The agency says the volcano erupted at 3:39 PM on Thursday, local time.
Mount Ioyama is one of the volcanoes in the Kirishima Mountain Range, which straddles the border between Kagoshima and Miyazaki prefectures on the island of Kyushu.
Agency officials have raised the volcanic alert level to 3 on a scale of 1 to 5, and they are urging people to stay away from the mountain.
They are also warning of the danger of falling rocks and pyroclastic flows within a 2-kilometer radius of the crater.
Source: ANNnewsCH