Tokyo, Sha'ban 11, 1436, May 29, 2015, SPA -- A volcano on a southern Japanese island erupted Friday morning, spewing a plume of black smoke, with authorities issuing an evacuation order for islanders. The 9:59 am (0059 GMT) "explosive" eruption of Mount Shindake on Kuchinoerabu Island, 1,200 kilometers south-west of Tokyo, caused a pyroclastic flow to reach the coast, dpa quoted the Japan Meteorological Agency as saying. A pyroclastic flow is a mix of hot ash, lava fragments and gases ejected explosively from a volcano and which usually flows downhill at high speed. All 137 islanders have been confirmed safe. The evacuation order comes as the agency raised the volcano alert level for the island to the highest level of 5. --SPA 11:24 LOCAL TIME 08:24 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w