Comoros' volcano, Mount Karthala, began emitting fumes and the earth shook, residents and officials said on Saturday when the Indian Ocean archipelago's largest island was put on red alert for a possible evacuation. The 2,361-metre (7,746-foot) Mount Karthala, one of the world's largest active volcanoes, dominates Grand Comore but its past eruptions have rarely caused a major disaster, Reuters reported. "Since yesterday evening, the volcano has become eruptive," Hamidou Soule, a geologist who heads the Karthala volcano surveillance centre, told Reuters. Residents said they felt two earth tremors at about 10 a.m. local time (1300 GMT) which caused buildings to shake. "These signs are worrying," Soule said. "The tremors could mean that the lava is looking to crack through the rock and the possibility of a (lava) flow cannot be dismissed," he said. Soule said lava levels inside the volcano's crater had fallen back after rising earlier in the day. Mount Karthala has erupted every 11 years on average for the last two centuries. Residents of Mvouni, a town at 1,000 metres altitude on the volcano's west slope, were woken up by strong fumes. "My neighbour woke me at two o'clock in the morning and we saw the red glimmer in the sky," said resident Halima Ahamada. "A strong smell of burning earth took us by the throats." Colonel Ismael Daho, head of the emergency management team for the archipelago, said Grande Comore had been put on red alert. "We have put all military and interior security forces on alert, in case the population is evacuated," he said. In May, the volcano frightened thousands of residents when it bubbled lava and lit up the night sky, but later stabilised. The last big eruption, in April 2005, sent thousands fleeing in fear of poisonous gas and lava. The worst disaster on record came in 1903, when 17 died from noxious fumes that seeped from cracks.
