Published on 04/08/2026 - 7:10 GMT+2•Updated 7:17

Guatemalan authorities issued the country's second-highest emergency alert level on Monday evening after a major eruption of Central America's most active volcano.

"An orange (danger) alert has been declared nationwide due to the eruption of the Fuego volcano," said disaster coordination agency Conred on X as it began evacuating two villages near the volcano, located 35 kilometres from the capital Guatemala City.

There have been several such mass evacuations in recent years because Fuego erupted.

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

Last year, authorities evacuated more than 500 people after Fuego spewed gas and ash, moving residents to shelters from communities near the crater.

The government suspended local school activities and closed a road linking the south of the country to the colonial city of Antigua, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Another eruption in 2023 from the 3,763-metre Fuego caused the evacuation of around 1,200 people.

In 2018, 215 people were killed and a similar number left missing when rivers of lava poured down the volcano's slopes, devastating a village.

This is a developing story and our journalists are working on further updates.