ALOTENANGO, Guatemala (AFP) — Guatemalan authorities evacuated around a thousand people on Monday after Central America’s most active volcano erupted, spewing lava, ash and rocks.

Residents with traumatic memories of a deadly eruption in 2018 sought refuge after the Fuego volcano — located 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the capital Guatemala City — showed escalating activity.

“We heard the rumblings and then a strong eruption,” Manuel Cobox, 46, told AFP after leaving his home with his wife and three daughters.

Some 125 families, around 900 people, were moved to safety from the community of El Porvenir, said Juan Laureano, a spokesman for Guatemala’s disaster coordination agency, Conred.

Residents of another community in Las Lajitas were also evacuated, the official added.

Buses brought evacuees carrying belongings to a town hall turned into a temporary shelter, while others stayed with friends or relatives.

Around 30,000 people were potentially “at risk” and should evacuate themselves if necessary, Conred head Claudinne Ogaldes told a news conference.

Guatemala lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

In 2018, 215 people were killed and a similar number left missing when an eruption of the Fuego volcano sent rivers of lava pouring down its sides, devastating the village of San Miguel Los Lotes.

On that occasion, residents “did not believe the magnitude and a tragedy struck,” said Cobox, who works on a pig farm.

Amanda Santos, a 58-year-old housekeeper, said that memories of that previous eruption came flooding back when she heard the firefighters’ sirens.

“That’s why we’re afraid. Many people died,” she added.

Another eruption in 2023 from the 3,763-meter (12,346-foot) Fuego caused the evacuation of around 1,200 people.

An alert was issued by the authorities on Sunday in order to coordinate the response and preventive measures, Conred said.

The government suspended local school activities and closed a road through the village that links the south of the country to the colonial city of Antigua, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Guatemala’s most popular tourist destination.

Authorities were monitoring pyroclastic flows — fast-moving currents of hot ash, gas and rock fragments that descend the slopes of a volcano, Conred spokesman Laureano said.

The state-run Volcanology Institute recommended that air traffic take precautions due to a spreading ash cloud.