Japan's Sakurajima volcano has erupted in spectacular fashion, blasting a towering 4,400-metre ash plume into the sky and triggering ashfall alerts across Kagoshima, Kumamoto and Miyazaki.

A volcano on Japan's major western island of Kyushu erupted multiple times on Sunday, sending a plume of smoke and ash as high as 4.4 kilometres (2.73 miles) into the air and causing dozens of flight ...