A VOLCANO in southern Japan is blasting out chunks of magma in the first such eruption in 22 years, causing flight cancellations and prompting warnings to stay away from its crater.
The Japan Meteorological Agency has said Mount Aso had spewed out lava debris and smoke, shooting plumes of ash 3,280ft into the sky.
Dozens of flights from Kumamoto, the nearest city to the volcano, have been cancelled.
Officials at the observatory say they do not expect the eruption to increase in scale.
Mount Aso, which is about 625 miles south-west of Tokyo on Kyushu island, is one of the world's largest.
Earthquakes and other seismic activity in the region stepped up in late August.
Eruptions by another volcano, Mount Ontake, in Nagano west of Tokyo killed more than 50 people in late September when a massive eruption caught hikers by surprise.
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