Following two months of earthquakes and eruptions on Miyake Island in the Izu island chain, Miyake Mayor Ko Hasegawa on Friday effectively ordered all residents to evacuate the island within three days as the threat from Mount Oyama intensified.
Although intermittent evacuation orders have been issued over the past several months, Friday's order was the first affecting all residents.
The evacuation decision followed Thursday's warning by the Coordinating Committee for the Prediction of Volcanic Eruptions that pyroclastic flows from the 813-meter mountain at the island's center were becoming more likely.