Japanese government said there were no reports of injuries from the eruption of Mount Aso volcano on Saturday.
Police and municipal governments said there were no reports of injuries from the eruption of the largest active volcano in Japan on Saturday.
Mount Aso located at the main southern island of Kyushu erupted early on Saturday spewing volcanic ash 11,000 meters (7 miles) into the sky.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the eruption began at 1:46 a.m. local time (1646 GMT Friday) on one of the peaks of the 1,592-metre (5,222 feet) mountain in Kumamoto Prefecture.
Mount Aso, based on the record, is one of the most active peaks in Japan but is also a popular hiking spot where many tourists are coming in.
According to the meteorological agency, the Saturday eruption was the first “explosive eruption” at the peak since January 1980.
When the incident happened, the agency raised the alert level for the volcano to level 3 on a scale of 5, where people were told not to approach the mountain due to the warning of falling rocks. It also warned that ashes may fall in 10 prefectures.
Japanese media said that TV footage showed volcanic ash had accumulated on cars, houses and roads in the city of Aso and ash has fell as far as 320 km (200 miles) away.
Farmers in the nearby area also reported that some vinyl greenhouses where tomatoes and asparagus were being grown 6-8 km away from the crater had been broken by ash and small rocks.
An official at Aso city hall said that a window was cracked by a falling rock at an Aso youth center about 5 km away from the crater but there were no reports of injuries.
“We are concerned that more damage on crops will be reported,” the official said.
An electric provider Kyushu Electric Power Co has reported that the eruption had no impact on its Sendai nuclear plant located at about 160 km south of Mount Aso. It is one of the two reactors that are online in Japan.
A spokesman at Kyushu Electric said up to 29,000 households lost power shortly after the eruption but the problem was fixed in less than two hours.
Japan lies on the “Ring of Fire” and is home to more than 100 active volcanoes.