Experts in neighbouring Martinique are stepping up their vigilance as a result of activity at Mount Pelée Volcano and have raised the level of alert, local reports say.
Martinique 1ere on Friday quoted Fabrice Fontaine, the Director of the Volcano and Seismology Observatory in the French overseas territory, as saying that the experts had urged a switch to a yellow level alert.
He said it meant stepping up vigilance a including aerial reconnaissance.
Yellow is the third level of vigilance on a scale that has 5.
The next step is the pre-alert, in orange then the alert in red.
However the Prefect of Martinique, Stanislas Cazelles, says the yellow alert is no precursor of signs of an eruption.
“This reminds us that Pelée is a living volcano. We are going to strengthen its surveillance. This yellow alert is not an alert for the population but for scientists”, he explained.
Last September 51 volcano tectonic type tremors had been recorded on Mount Pelée and the number has been increasing since November last year, local reports say. (St Lucia Times)