A volcano in southern Japan disrupted air travel, with airline flights into and out of a nearby city canceled as Mount Aso belched magma and ash into the sky over the island of Kyushu.
After a period of renewed seismic activity that began in August, the volcano began spewing out chunks of magma and sending clouds of ash two kilometers into the air, causing the airport in nearby Kumamoto to cancel flights on Thursday our of fears of low visibility or the risk of volcanic ash damage aircraft engines.
Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways warned passengers of "a number of cancellations and changed destinations" on air routes using Kumamoto Airport.
Rocks were seen shooting into the air 200 of yards above the volcano's crater rim, the first time it has done so since an eruption in 1995.
Mount Aso has several craters around its summit, with the current eruption coming from one near the 5,200-foot peak of the mountain.
Ash fell on several cities as far as 25 miles from the eruption, the Japan Meteorological Agency's Fukuoka Regional Headquarters said.
Officials have banned visitors from coming within a kilometer of the crater, which in recent years has become a popular tourist destination with visitors able to park their cars just a minute's walk from the crater.
Three people were killed and 11 injured that last time Mount Aso erupted.
Officials said they didn't expect the eruption to get any worse although they said there could be more airline flight delays.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency has placed Mount Aso on a level 2 out of a possible 5 levels of warning status. The volcano produced a number of level 2 eruptions from 1989 to 1994.
Mount Aso, about 625 miles southwest of Tokyo on Kyushu Island, is one of the world's largest volcanoes, with a caldera measuring almost 75 miles in circumference that is one of Japan's most active volcanic clusters.
There are five separate volcanic cones within the caldera, which has seen giant eruptions in the past including one around 90,000 years ago that blanketed the entire island of Kyushu in volcanic ash.
The Kyushu region, home to 7 million people, has seen seven massive eruptions in the last 120,000 years.
Japan has experienced significant volcanic activity recently, including the September eruption of Mount Ontake, west of Tokyo, which killed more than 50 hikers and tourists.
