People have been evacuated from the area around the crater near Baratang town on Middle Strait island, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the capital Port Blair.

There were no reports of injury.

"It began on Tuesday night. Flames and lava are shooting up three metres high," Deol said.

"We cleared the population from a half kilometre range as a precaution ... and put up barricades."

Some 2,000 people live at Baratang.

"A crack opened in the earth's crust there about a decade ago," Deol said. "It developed into a crater which used to give off gas."

The Geological Survey of India describes the Baratang crater as a mud volcano covering an area of about 1,200 square metres (1,440 yards), which has been increasing in size from a minor fissure.

Official sources earlier mistakenly sited the volcano on Barren Island, site of a crater traditionally known as the only active volcano in India.

Barren 1 is located some 135 kilometres (80 miles) northeast of the capital Port Blair, and last erupted in 1996.

The Andamans has reported a series of major aftershocks daily since Sunday's massive undersea quake off Sumatra.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are located near a zone of intense tectonic activity.

Barren Island also erupted in 1991 after more than a century of inactivity.

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