Japan's Sakurajima volcano erupts, ashfall cancels flights

A volcano on Japan's major western island of Kyushu erupted multiple times on Sunday, sending a plume of smoke and ash as high as 4.4 km into the air and causing dozens of flight cancellations.

The volcano, which is called Sakurajima and is located on the southern tip of Kyushu near the city of Kagoshima, erupted at about 1 am (1600 GMT on Saturday), the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. There were two more eruptions at about 2:30 am and 8:50 am.

It is the first eruption reaching 4 km or higher in almost 13 months, Kyodo news agency said.

Local media also reported 30 flights in and out of Kagoshima Airport were cancelled because of ashfall and related reasons.

The JMA said volcanic ash drifted northeast following the latest eruption and that it expected ash to fall in Kagoshima as well as nearby Miyazaki Prefecture on Sunday.

Sakurajima is one of Japan's most active volcanoes and eruptions of varying levels take place on a regular basis. In 2019 it spewed ash as high as 5.5 km.