INDONESIA’S Mount Sinabung erupted today, sending a column of volcanic materials as high as 16,400 feet into the sky and depositing ash on villages.

Falling grit and ash accumulated up to two inches in already abandoned villages on the volcano’s slopes, an official at the Sinabung monitoring post on the island of Sumatra reported.

In Berastagi, a tourist destination in North Sumatra province about 12 miles from the crater, motorists had to switch on headlights in daylight to see through the ash.

There were no fatalities or injuries from the eruption, Indonesia’s Volcanology & Geological Hazard Mitigation Centre said.

Villagers have been advised to stay three miles from the crater’s mouth and should be aware of the peril of lava, the agency said. Air travel was not being affected so far by the ash cloud, the Transport Ministry said.

Some 30,000 people have been forced to leave homes around Sinabung in the past few years.