Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra erupted 24 times on Friday, shooting a column of ash about 4,000 meter to the sky and forcing further evacuation, official said.

Powerful burst of ash spread from the crater of rumbling volcano, located in Karo district, and the hot ash slid off to the southeast, scaling up the number of people fleeing the eruption to 24,949 on Friday from 22,708 days ago, said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of national disaster management agency.

"It is expected that the volcano is going to persist eruption in days to come," he told Xinhua over phone.

Evacuation zone has been declared at 7 km from the crater of the volcano, Sutopo said, adding the authorities will proceed to send emergency relief aids to affected-areas.

The 2,457-meter Mount Sinabung has rumbled to life since September after being dormant for 400 years. It has erupted on and off since then, but went into overdrive frequently in November and December.

The Mount Sinabung is among the 129 active volcanoes in the vast archipelago country, which is prone to seismic upheaval as it lays on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" encircling the Pacific Ocean.