Residents sought safety in a temporary shelter after the Fuego volcano -- located 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the capital Guatemala City -- showed escalating activity on Sunday.

"We heard the rumblings and then a strong eruption. We have faith in God... that the activity of the volcano will calm down soon," Manuel Cobox, 46, told AFP after leaving his home with his wife and three daughters.

Some 125 families, around 900 people, were moved to safety from the community of El Porvenir, said Juan Laureano, a spokesman for Guatemala's disaster coordination agency, Conred.

Residents of another community in Las Lajitas were also evacuated, the official added.

Buses brought evacuees carrying belongings to a town hall turned into a temporary shelter.

In 2018, 215 people were killed and a similar number left missing as an eruption of the Fuego volcano sent rivers of lava pouring down its sides, devastating the village of San Miguel Los Lotes.

Another eruption in 2023 from the 3,763-meter (12,346-foot) Fuego caused the evacuation of around 1,200 people.

An alert was issued by the authorities on Sunday in order to coordinate the response and preventive measures, Conred said.

The government suspended local school activities and closed a road through the village that links the south of the country to the colonial city of Antigua, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Guatemala's most popular tourist destination.

The state-run Volcanology Institute recommended that air traffic take precautions due to ash that has spread about 50 kilometers west of the volcanic cone.