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Telecomunicaciones y tecnología

Military evacuated as Chile volcano eruption flares


    PUERTO MONTT, Chile (Reuters) - Chile evacuated the last of a small group of military personnel and civilians from the vicinity of an erupting volcano in its remote Patagonian south before dawn on Thursday, after it spat a surge of fiery material, officials said.

    Chile's government has already evacuated thousands ofpeople from within a 30 mile (50 km) radius of Chaiten volcano,which lies some 760 miles (1,220 km) south of the capitalSantiago and has showered towns as far away as neighbouringArgentina in ash.

    The town of Chaiten sits just 6 miles (10 km) from thevolcano, and nearly the entire civilian population had alreadybeen completely evacuated. Three civilians had been holdingout.

    "Army personnel have seen pyroclastic material, burningmaterial," Miguel Munoz of the government's National EmergencyOffice told Reuters. "So the (remaining) civilian and armypersonnel have been moved."

    The long dormant 3,280-foot (1,000-meter) Chaiten volcanobegan erupting on Friday for the first time in thousands ofyears, and the huge plume of volcanic ash is clearly visible onsatellite images cutting a swathe across South America'ssouthern tip.

    Experts believe the volcano could continue belching outvast clouds of ash for months, and say it could rumble on foryears.

    Chile has the world's second most active string ofvolcanoes behind Indonesia. It is home to 2,000 volcanoes, 500of which experts say are potentially active. Around 60 haveerupted over the past 450 years.

    (Reporting by Antonio de la Jara and Esteban Medel. Writingby Simon Gardner, editing by Jackie Frank)