April 8 (Reuters) - Residents of northern areas on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent have been ordered to evacuate homes due to a significant increase in the risk of an eruption at the La Soufriere volcano, the government said on Thursday.
Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said people living in so-called red zones in the northwest and northeast of the island needed to leave immediately as the volcano pumped out more smoke and steam.
"There is now in the country an evacuation order," Gonsalves said in a message broadcast on social media.
St. Vincent's National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) said on Twitter there was now a "substantial prospect of disaster" due to the pick-up in La Soufriere's seismic activity.