Thousands flee Colombian volcano

SEVERAL thousand people were evacuated after a volcano erupted in southern Colombia, triggering an avalanche that swelled rivers and threatened local communities.

Tumbling waters carrying trees, rocks and mud forced around 5000 people to leave their homes for safer ground in the southern provinces of Huila and Cauca, local and emergency officials said.

“In the municipalities and departments where the avalanche passed we have no reports of any victims. We have some bridges down ... but people had time to evacuate,” Civil Defence official Col. Hector Riveros said.

The Nevado del Huila Volcano erupted at the start of the year after laying dormant for hundreds of years.

A eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in 1985 triggered mudslides killing 25,000 people in Colombia's worst natural disaster.

[link to www.news.com.au]