AKIPRESS.COM - Volcano Calbuco in southern Chile erupted for the first time in more than five decades on Wednesday, sending a thick plume of ash and smoke several kilometers into the sky, reports AP.

Chile's Onemi emergency office declared a red alert following the sudden eruption at around 1800 local time (2100 GMT), which occurred about 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) south of Santiago, the capital, near the tourist town of Puerto Varas.

About 1,500 people were being moved out of the area and an evacuation radius of 20 km has been established, authorities said.

"In this situation, with the eruption column so high, the main risk is that it collapses, falls due to gravity because of its own weight and causes a pyroclastic flow," Gabriel Orozco, a vulcanologist with Chile's geological and mining service, said on local TV.

A pyroclastic flow is a superheated current of gas and rock that can destroy nearly everything in its path and travel at speeds upwards of 200 to 300 kilometers per hour.

In March, Volcano Villarrica, also in southern Chile, erupted, sending a plume of ash and lava high into the sky, but quickly subsided.