GUATEMALA CITY: Authorities in Guatemala have ordered evacuations in some southern communities around the Fuego volcano, which is erupting.

Claudinne Ogaldes, executive secretary of the Guatemalan disaster managing agency, CONRED, confirmed on Monday evening to The Associated Press that the eruption started on Monday morning and increased during the day, which led to evacuation orders for two villages around the mountain.

Live images of the situation showed big clouds of gas and ash over the volcano as lava and pyroclastic flows rolled down the slopes at great speed.

“The eruption increases its explosiveness level. A fountain of lava of between 200 and 300 metres (650 to 1,000 feet) has developed over the crater,” according to a report from the Guatemalan Seismology, Vulcanology, Weather and Water Institute.

CONRED said in a press statement that authorities were evacuating El Porvenir and the hamlet of Las Lajitas as a preventive measure. That would be around 50 families or 250 people. The agency declared an orange alert and warned of ashes spreading to nearby towns.

A major highway that passes close to the volcano, National Route 14, was closed. The Education Ministry suspended classes in nearby towns.

Hundreds of people were killed and a whole village was destroyed during a previous eruption on the Fuego volcano in June 2018. That episode affected up to 1.7 million people, according to authorities.

The Fuego volcano is one of the most active in Guatemala. Another eruption in June last year spurred preventive evacuations.