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Russia’s Kamchatka volcanoes spew giant ash clouds

29 October 2010 00:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Volcanic eruptions on Russia’s far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula have tossed massive ash clouds into the air, forcing flights to divert and blanketing a town with ashes, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry’s branch in Kamchatka said Thursday that ash clouds from both the Shiveluch and Kluchevskaya volcanoes are disrupting flights in the area.

It says visibility in the Russian town of Ust-Kamchatsk has been reduced to a few feet (meters) and a thick layer of ash is covering the ground. It says the town’s 5,000 residents aren’t in danger but urged them to stay indoors and tightly close doors and windows.

Vulcanologist Sergei Senyukov told Rossiya 24 television that ash clouds have soared up to 10 kilometers (33,000 feet) into the air and were spreading east across the Pacific Ocean.