Eruption at Guatemala's Fuego volcano forces over 700 to evacuate

An ongoing eruption at central Guatemala's Fuego volcano has caused over 700 people living in nearby communities to evacuate, the country's disaster agency CONRED said on Friday.

The volcano, located some 18 kilometres from the city of Antigua Guatemala, was producing ash plumes some 4.8 kilometres high and lava stream that was accumulating around its crater, Guatemala's seismology agency INSIVUMEH added.

Authorities said they continued to monitor the situation.

In a report shortly after midnight on Friday, INSIVUMEH said a lava flow could be seen stretching to around 1.2 km.

"This continues to accumulate in an unstable manner around the crater and in the high parts of the ravines, which could collapse and cause more pyroclastic flows," it said.

Around the size of the US state of Tennessee, the Central American nation is home to 37 volcanoes though many of these are considered dormant or extinct.

Fuego is known for its frequent activity. In June 2018, its most violent eruption in some four decades killed more than 200 people.