Clean-up begins after Mount Sinabung eruption 'annihilates' peak's summit

Ash from Mount Sinabung volcano covers a car and street following an eruption in Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Antara Foto / Surianto Sembiring / via Reuters

Men clean volcanic ash from the street after Mount Sinabung volcano spewed thick volcanic ash across the area the day before in Karo, North Sumatra. Kadri Boy Tarigan / AFP

Students clean their school yard from ash after the Mount Sinabung volcano erupted on Monday at Payung village in Karo, North Sumatra. Antara Foto / Ahmad Putra / via Reuters

Ash from Mount Sinabung volcano covers vegetable plants as villagers carry their belongings at Payung Village in Karo, North Sumatra. Antara Foto / Ahmad Putra / via Reuters

Tobacco leaves (L) sit covered with volcanic ash after Mount Sinabung volcano spewed thick volcanic ash across the area the day before in Karo, North Sumatra. Kadri Boy Tarigan / AFP

An Indonesian man cleans volcanic ash from a roof of a house after Mount Sinabung volcano spewed thick volcanic ash across the area the day before in Karo, North Sumatra. Kadri Boy Tarigan / AFP

Men clean volcanic ash from the street after Mount Sinabung volcano spewed thick volcanic ash across the area the day before in Karo, North Sumatra. Kadri Boy Tarigan / AFP

Students prepare before the start of their class as Mount Sinabung is seen in the background, at an elementary school in Beganding, North Sumatra. Ahmad Putra / AP Photo

Students play before the start of their class as Mount Sinabung is seen in the background, at an elementary school in Beganding, North Sumatra. Ahmad Putra / AP Photo

Men washing away the fallen ash after nearby Mount Sinabung volcano erupted, in the town Karo North Sumatra. Ivan Damanik / AFP

The eruption of Indonesia's Mount Sinabung that shot ash 5 kilometreshigh also blew away much of the mountain's summit.

Before and after images from Indonesia's Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation show an enormous chunk missing from the peak, which it called "completely annihilated."

Volcanologist Devy Kamil Syahbana said Tuesday that the chunk, known as the "lava dome," had a volume of at least 1.6 million cubic metres.

The volcano in North Sumatra, which has been active since 2010 after centuries of dormancy, erupted explosively on Monday morning.

Hot ash clouds rolled down its slopes, traveling as far as 4.9km from the crater, and ash reached Lhokseumawe, a city more than 260 kilometres to the northwest.

No-one was injured. Video showed screaming children fleeing a school outside the volcano's exclusion zone as a billowing column of ash rose in the background.

Mount Sinabung is among more than 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, which is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

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