An ash cloud rising above Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii's Big Island following its eruption on Thursday — Reuters Kilauea volcano has erupted near a residential area on Hawaii's largest island, prompting a local state of emergency and the mandatory evacuation of 1,700 residents, report agencies.
Streams of lava have been seen running through woods and bubbling on to roads.
Extreme levels of dangerous sulphur dioxide gas have been detected in the area, the Civil Defense Agency said.
Kilauea is one of the world's most active volcanoes and the eruption follows a series of recent earthquakes.
"It sounds like a jet engine. It's going hard," resident Ikaika Marzo told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Community centres have been opened to provide shelter for evacuees.
Officials had been warning residents all week they should be prepared to evacuate as an eruption would give little warning.
A volcanic crater vent - known as Puu Oo - collapsed earlier this week, sending lava down the mountain's slopes towards populated areas.
Talmadge Mango, the civil defence administrator for Hawaii County, told the BBC that power lines had melted off their poles in one area.
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