Image copyright CENAPRED Image caption The ash plume shot into the sky at 03:10 local time (08:10 GMT)

One of Mexico's most active volcanoes has sent a huge ash plume into the sky, the country's centre of disaster monitoring has reported.

Overnight video taken by the centre shows ash and incandescent material shooting from the Popocatépetl volcano 2,000m (6,500ft) into the air.

People have been warned to avoid the area inside the 12km security radius surrounding its crater.

Ash has been falling on communities near the volcano.

Carlos Valdés, the director-general of the monitoring centre, Cenapred, posted footage of the eruption on his Twitter account.

He wrote that incandescent material had been thrown 400m down the slopes of Popocatépetl.

Popocatépetl is an active stratovolcano, 70km (43 miles) south-east of the capital, Mexico City.

Its name means "smokey mountain" in the indigenous Náhuatl language. </s> Volcanoes Campi Flegrei in Italy, Sakurajima in Japan, Pavlof in Alaska, Popocatépetl in Mexico and Iturrialba in Costa Rica among others showed signs of reawakening in the last semester of 2016,Throughout history, volcanoes have inspired fear and admiration as well. Vesubio (Italy), Mount Tambora (Indonesia), Laki (Iceland), Mount St. Hellen (USA) and Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia) are just some of the volcanoes that have ravaged entire populations in different periods of time, killing thousands of people and turning vast areas into a desert of fire, ashes and sulfuric gases. But, strange as it may sound, volcano activity has become an item of the so-called eco/adventure tourism, thanks to the unmatched, unique spectacle of lights and sound that offers a moderated eruption.According to experts, it takes 500 years for a supervolcano to reawaken, even less. And this seems to be the case of Campli Flegrei in the west of Naples, Italy, an extensive volcanic that boasts 24 craters and its cauldron-like depression was formed 39,000 years before as part of the biggest eruption that Europe has experienced in the last 200,000 years.A team of researchers led by volcanologist Giovanni Chiodini from the Italian National Institute of Geophysics in Rome assures thata sign that could be read as announcing of an imminent eruption. The research team says that Campi Flegrai has registered an "uplift" since the last decade, what it means that the volatile gasses inside are rising to the surface at an unexpected rate, turning the alert level from green (or quiet) to yellow (or monitoring mode).Another colossus, Sakurajima volcano at Japan's Kyushu island, had a 'bad awakening' last April 29after that two earthquakes shook that Asian country, daily Asahi said. Again, a team of experts considered, a growing potential to trigger an eruption within 30 years - or much less. Sakurajima volcano's last deadly eruption occurred in 1914 with a toll of 58 dead, gaining the infamous nickname of the Naples of the Eastern World.The American continent doesn't escape from this latent risk. Consider Pavlof volcano in Aleutian islands, Alaska, that erupted last March 28. Since its burst, police, and geological service has kept the alert about "risk of air and land pollution".causing no injuries nor damages.Similar moments of fear and confusion lived people of Puebla, Mexico, when the giant of fire Popocatepetl awoke with a concert of explosions and fume columns, daily El País reported in its March 19edition. Last new of its activity was made last December 1when Puebla's International Airport was reopened after being closed due to falling ash from the volcano. Mexico's National Center for Disaster Prevention informed thatCosta Rica, land of well-reputed volcanoes that attract thousands of visitors each year, is not novelty the news about fumes columns, ash rain or eviction alerts. Nevertheless, Turrialba, the biggest of its volcanoes, started to spew smoke and ash 9,840 feet into the sky last May 21, causing breathing difficulties to hundreds of people who required medical attention.In fact, operations of main Costa Rican Airport should be suspended on September 21after a Turrialba's eruption sent a thick cloud of ashes and poisonous gasses, urging local residents to wear protective masks in order to undertake their daily tasks. This trend of Turrialba's sporadic ashes-spewing has kept until December 2016.It is important to remember that Turrialba volcano registered its last 'big' eruption in October 29, 2014, a night to remember for hundreds of local residents who were urged to flee their homes as a security measure after a rain of fume and heavy ashes came out of its crater. According to recent researches, that event would be mainly responsible for a rise in 10 meters of its central crater in the last two years and increased by the eruptive activity between September-November of 2016. Last reports say that Turrialba has kept "a passive but constant activity", adding that volcanic movement was registered on December 25The main answer, though, is what people must do? Should nearby residents from volcanic areas panic? Unfortunately, there is nothing they can do but being alert and attend to the authority's recommendations. "In general, volcanology is not a precise science. We have many uncertainties and long-term provisions are at the moment not possible! For example, the process that we describe could evolve in both directions: toward pre-eruptive conditions or to the finish of the volcanic unrest, Giovanni Chiodini warns.In this respect Costa Rica boasts a very complete Emergency Plan of Action for Volcanic Eruption, created on March 23th 2015 by International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies with the aim of mapping the areas of risk around Turrialba volcano in order to increase the number of response strategies at the moment of an imminent major eruption, as well as to raise awareness among the communities' members with regards to risks and hazards, acknowledging evacuation routes and encouraging the creation of volunteers' helping groups.
Popocatépetl, a stratovolcano that is part of the trans-Mexican volcanic belt, releases a large quantity of ash.