A volcano in Indonesia, called Mount Sinabung, erupted for the third time in three months, in 2013. The eruption of the Mount Sinabung volcano in Indonesia has forced the evacuation of almost 1,7000 people in four villages.

The volcano Mount Sinabung erupted on the western Indonesian island of Sumatra, officials said, Reuters reports. Mount Sinabung spewed a 7-km (4.3-mile) column of ash into the air on Sunday, prompting authorities to impose a 3-km evacuation radius.

The eruption forced nearly 1,700 people to evacuate homes in four villages surrounding Mount Sinabung, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman at the National Disaster Management Agency, The Wall Street Journal reports.

He said people further away were still in their homes, but he expected more evacuations to take place.

On Sunday, the volcano spit hot ash 7,000 meters (23,000 feet) above the peak of the volcano into the sky, The Christian Science Monitor reports via The Jakarta Post.

The government responded by raising the status alert on the volcano to level 3, just one level below it's highest alert.

No casualties were reported, according to Reuters.

In September, when the volcano first started erupting, more than 14,000 villagers were evacuated, The Wall Street Journal reports.

In October, the Mount Sinabung volcano eruption caused the evacuation of more than 3,300 people.

In 2010, the volcano came to life after lying dormant for 100 years, forcing the evacuation of around 12,000 villagers.

Mount Sinabung is one of almost 130 active volcanoes in the world's fourth-most populated country, which straddles the "Pacific Ring of Fire," Reuters reports. According to the Christian Science Monitor, the Pacific Ring of Fire is an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.