A cloud of smoke from the "Volcano of Fire"

May 11, 1999
Web posted at: 1:59 a.m. EDT (0559 GMT)

MEXICO CITY (CNN) -- Authorities are on red alert after Mexico's Colima Volcano erupted Monday, spraying its slopes with lava, setting off brush fires and creating a giant mushroom cloud, the Interior Ministry said.

Authorities evacuated 315 nearby residents after the 14,319-foot (4,339-meter) volcano, also known as the "Volcano of Fire," blew its stack.

The mushroom-shaped cloud stretched about four miles (six kilometers) high.

Colima Volcano borders Colima and Jalisco states about 285 miles (460 kilometers) west of Mexico City.

Mexico's Interior Ministry said the volcano sent out tremors Monday morning, when local officials began evacuating people from six villages near the volcano.

By Monday afternoon the volcano let loose with an "intense explosion" that was heard for "several tens of kilometers," the Interior Ministry said.

"Just as it did in a similar event on February 10, the explosion launched incandescent fragments for several kilometers without reaching any populated areas," the Interior Ministry said.

Reuters contributed to this report.