New eruptions from a Russian volcano have today sent fresh ash clouds spewing more than six miles into the sky.
Warnings to aviation are in place, and people more than 50 miles away from 10,771ft Shiveluch are urged to remain indoors.
One village is covered under eight inches of volcanic dust on top of thick snow cover after doomsday arrived on Tuesday when light turned to dark in the wake of the ferocious eruption on the Kamchatka peninsula.
Volcanologists had to take cover under upturned snow mobiles to protect themselves from showers of molten rock after the eruption when the ash cloud reached 12 miles into the sky.
Pictures on the day after the eruption showed eerie black or grey snow from the noxious ash pollution.
A clean-up was underway but the regional government admitted: "The ongoing ash fall and high winds are hindering the work.”
Villages Klyuchi, Kozyrevsk and Maiskoye in the Ust-Kamchatsk district were all hit by the volcanic eruption.
"The ash blanket is six to eight centimetres thick in Kozyrevsk.
“There is much more ash in Klyuchi.
“For now, the blanket is about 11 centimetres thick or even reaches 20 centimetres [8 inches] in places where the wind blows.”
Fresh water and masks have been delivered to the villages.
Alexei Ozerov, Director of the Institute of the Volcanology and Seismology of the Russian Academy of Science, said: ”Shiveluch will continue to erupt for quite some time and the ash will remain in the atmosphere for a long time.”
Yesterday, video showed the doomsday scene as smoke poured from the Shiveluch volcano and turned the sky black.
An area of 41,700 square miles was blanketed in darkness, an area larger than Scotland and Wales combined.
"The ash cloud extends 500 kilometres northwest of Shiveluch and is still growing," said Alexey Ozerov, director of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The volcano is known to be active but this was the largest ash cloud in at least 60 years in village Klyuchi close to the eruption, said locals.
The region was also hit by a 4.5 magnitude earthquake with an epicentre in the waters of Avacha Bay.
Residents said the morning sky had turned to darkness.
"The sun should be shining but is nowhere to be seen,” said one.
“The village is under a cloud of ash from the Shiveluch volcano…..
“It’s pitch dark…You cannot see anything.”
Commentary on another video said as day turned to night: “That's it, the lights are out. No sunlight.”
