Residents evacuated after Colombian volcano erupts

BOGOTA, Colombia – Colombian officials have ordered the preventative evacuation of some communities around the Nevado del Ruiz volcano after it erupted, spewing smoke and ash.

President Juan Manuel Santos on his Twitter account urged people living near the volcano in western Colombia to follow established contingency plans.

Carlos Ivan Marquez, national director of Colombia's disaster management agency, said late Saturday that the situation is being monitored and "tends toward calm."

Gas and vapor have been rising periodically since earlier this year from the Nevado de Ruiz, a 17,457-foot volcano located roughly 90 miles west of the country's capital, Bogota.

A 1985 eruption at the volcano brought a river of rocks and mud sweeping across the town of Armero, killing 25,000 people.