The death toll from an earthquake and a tsunami that hit Indonesia's Sulawesi island last week has risen to 1407, according to the National Disaster Management Agency.
Amidst this critical situation in Indonesia, a volcano erupted Wednesday on the same central Indonesian island as an earlier earthquake and authorities warned planes about volcanic ash in the air.
Mount Soputan in North Sulawesi province spewed ash 6000 meters into the sky Wednesday morning.
The eruption status was raised from an alert to standby 4 kilometres from the summit and up to 6.5km to the west-southwest. Standby status means people should avoid the area nearest the volcano and have masks available in the event of ashfall.
Planes were warned of the ash clouds because volcanic ash is hazardous for plane engines.
No evacuations were immediately ordered.
Soputan is on the northern part of Sulawesi island, where a central region was severely damaged by an earthquake and tsunami Friday.
A government volcanologist said it's possible the eruption was accelerated by the 7.5 magnitude earthquake in Central Sulawesi on Friday.
