The Colombia's most active volcano Galeras erupted late on Saturday with no immediate report on casualty or property damage, seismologists said.

The Volcanology and Seismology Observatory said that the Galeras volcano had started to erupt at 19:43 local time (00:43 GMT).

National Red Cross aid director Carlos Ivan Marquez said that some 8,000 people might have to be evacuated from Pasto as a precaution, in that the volcano is located just over 10 kilometers from the capital town of the Colombian province of Narino.

Pasto has a population of 500,000.

The 4,276-meter volcano erupted several times in early 2009.

A 1993 eruption of Galeras killed nine people, including six scientists who had descended into the volcano's crater to sample gases.

The volcano's first historical eruption was recorded on December 7, 1580.