Senior volcanologist Gede Suantika said there were fears a full-scale eruption of the volcano was imminent.

A 200m-tall column of smoke was seen rising from the mountain early on Sunday, said the chief geologist monitoring the site, Gede Suantika.

After the attack, Bali suffered a dramatic slump in tourism and locals such as taxi driver Gede Widiada found they could barely make ends meet.