The deadliest volcanic eruptions of the past 25 years

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After Guatemala's Fuego volcano erupted on Sunday killing over 60 people, here is a list of the most deadly volcanic eruptions over the last quarter century.

2014: Japan

Two years after the eruption of the Mount Ontake /VCG Photo

The sudden eruption of Mount Ontake killed more than 60 people in Japan's worst volcanic disaster in nearly 90 years. The 3,067-meter Ontake was packed with hikers when it erupted without warning in September.

Also in Japan, the Unzen volcano killed 43 people when it erupted in 1991.

2014: Indonesia

At least 16 people were killed on the island of Sumatra in February by a spectacular eruption of Mount Sinabung, which had lain dormant for 400 years before roaring back to life five months earlier. In 2016 villages were scorched and farmland devastated after another eruption killed seven.

2010: Indonesia

A satellite image shows the eruption and lava flow of Mount Merapi, Indonesia, November 12, 2010. /VCG Photo

One of the world's most dangerous volcanoes, Mount Merapi, exploded on the densely populated central Java island, killing more than 300 people in its most powerful eruption since 1872. Some 280,000 people were evacuated. Another eruption in 1930 killed 1,300 people, while yet another killed more than 60 in 1994.

2002: DR Congo

The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo destroyed the center of Goma town, along with several residential areas, and killed more than 100 people.

1999: Peru

At least 34 people went missing after a sudden volcanic eruption caused mudslides that buried five Andean villages northeast of Lima.

1997: Montserra

The main path of a pyroclastic flow from the Soufriere Hills volcano in Plymouth. /VCG Photo

The capital of the small British colony, Plymouth, was wiped off the map and 20 were killed or left missing in avalanches of hot rock and ash clouds when its volcano erupted.

1996: The Philippines

At least 70 were killed and another 30 missing after the crater of the Parker volcano in the south of the island of Mindanao collapsed. Five years earlier the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, 80 kilometers north of the capital Manila, killed more than 800.

Worst ever

The explosion of Indonesia's Krakatoa volcano in 1883 is considered the worst ever seen. The eruption sent a jet of ash, stones and smoke shooting more than 20 kilometers into the sky, plunging the region into darkness, and sparking a huge tsunami that was felt around the world. The disaster killed more than 36,000 people.

The most famous eruption in history is that of Mount Vesuvius in modern-day Italy in 79 AD, which destroyed the towns of Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Pompeii, wiping out an estimated 10 percent of the population of the three cities.

(Top image: The eruption of Guatemala's Fuego volcano /AFP Photo )

Source(s): AFP