DHAKA: Southern Chile’s Calbuco volcano has erupted for the first time in more than four decades, sending a thick plume of ash and smoke several kilometres into the sky.

The local television images showed that reports the Aljazeera.

Chile’s Onemi emergency office declared a red alert following Wednesday’s eruption, which occurred about 1,000km south of the capital Santiago near the tourist town of Puerto Varas. The area is sparsely populated, with only a few small communities.

Video footage of the eruption, which occurred at around 6:00pm local time (21:00 GMT), showed a spectacular mushroom-shaped cloud of ash and smoke, that turned red as the sun went down.

About 4,000 people had evacuated from the area and an evacuation radius of 20km has been established, authorities said.

Chile’s Interior Minister Rodrigo Penailillo gave a televised address after the volcano erupted, calling for calm. Penailillo said the military was being sent into Llanquihue province to help evacuate people and keep order.

He added that water was being sent to the area, as it was unclear how much ash may have fallen and contaminated water supplies in the area.

Later, Penailillo said there had been no reports of deaths, missing persons or injuries. He urged residents to evacuate and warned of possible lahars, a mix of water and rock fragments that flow down a volcano's slopes and river valleys.

BDST: 0912 HRS, APR 23, 2015
BD/