Mount Talang in Solok regency, Indonesia's West Sumatra province, spewed ash on Tuesday, sparking panic among a population that has yet to recover from a recent strong earthquake.

"The mountain coughed (up ash) in the early morning. We are still monitoring it," Rio, an officer at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying.

Rio said that Mount Talang erupted at 3:42 a.m. (2042 GMT, Monday), spewing volcanic ash about one km around the peak.

The 2,599-meter Mount Talang is just some 40 kilometers east of the coastal capital of West Sumatra province, Padang.

He said his office had warned people to avoid the ash fall-out zone around the peak but had otherwise not demanded the evacuation of the rest of the people who live on the mountain's slopes.

The eruption sparked panic among the local people on the fertile slopes of the volcano, prompting many to flee.

Padang was hit by a strong earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale on Sunday, causing minimal damage but prompting panic that saw thousands of residents flee to higher ground fearing tidal waves.

The eruption followed a series of major natural disasters to strike the western coast of Sumatra island.

A massive earthquake hit Aceh and parts of North Sumatra on December 26, 2004, creating deadly tidal waves that leveled coastal areas around the Indian Ocean, leaving more than 248,000 people originally declared dead or missing.

On March 28, a strong earthquake shook the islands of Nias and Simeulue off the western coast of Sumatra, killing more than 600 people.

Indonesia sits on a series of geological lines that remain constantly on the move and that are lined with over 130 active volcanoes.

Source: Xinhua