Chile volcano eruption flares

Chile evacuated the last military personnel from the vicinity of an erupting volcano in its remote Patagonian region before dawn yesterday, after it spat a surge of fiery material. But a few civilians refused to leave two villages near the Chaiten volcano in southern Chile which began erupting last week for the first time in thousands of years, a Reuters witness said.

The military and a few journalists drove around 80 kilometres south of the volcano to the village of Santa Lucia after earth tremors and an electric storm at its peak around midnight, a top regional government official said.

A strong smell of sulphur hung in the air around the village of Chaiten, just 10 kilometres from the volcano in southern Chile.

"Army personnel have seen pyroclastic material, burning material," Miguel Munoz of the government's National Emergency Office said. "So the (remaining) civilian and army personnel have been moved."

However, four civilians stayed back in Chaiten and 24 stayed in the village of Santa Barbara 20 kilometres from the volcano, well within a 50-kilometre evacuation radius, the Reuters witness said.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from the area, most by boat or navy warship. From the north, remote Chaiten, flanked by fjord, forest and river is only accessible by boat or by air.

"What happened last night could be repeated as long as the eruption cycle continues," said Rodrigo Rojas, a senior official at the National Emergency Office. "We haven't absolutely ruled it out."

Chaiten volcano lies 1,220 kilometres south of the capital Santiago and has showered ash on towns as far away as in neighbouring Argentina.