Japan's most active volcano erupted on Saturday afternoon, sending a massive amount of ash plume 3.4 km into the sky, grounding flights and blanketing the surrounding city of Kagoshima in debris.
It was Sakurajima's first major eruption of this year and the second in four months. The eruption from this volcano's crater began a little after noon local time, with the debris landing up to a kilometer away.
Japan's Meteorological Agency rolled out a volcanic alert to level 3 on its five-level scale, warning people not to approach the volcano due to dangers posed by falling rocks and pyroclastic flows.
Flights at the airport were grounded or delayed, and road closures were seen across the city and surrounding regions such as Kanoya and Tarumizu. This is where the accumulation of ash made it all the more dangerous. This is reported as the first explosive eruption to arise since 13 December of 2025 as per local media outlets.