QUITO – A volcano in central Ecuador spewed a cloud of ash Wednesday that fell on four towns as residents reported hearing rumblings and loud bangs.
On Wednesday, it reported light ash falls on the localities of Guamote and Cumanda in the central Chimborazo province.
There was also a dusting on Naranjito and Milagro in the southwestern Guayas province, some 200 km from the volcano, and images on social media showed farmers washing their crops.
The agency said loud bangs were heard in five provinces around the volcano and as far away as Quito, as the 3-km-high ash cloud moved in a westward direction.
Ecuador sits in a zone of high seismic activity, with about 100 volcanoes along its slice of the Andes mountain range.
In 2016, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed 673 people and devastated a long stretch of the South American country’s coast. – Agency
