Authorities have evacuated a boarding school in the Riau province of Indonesia after natural gas began to burst from the ground spraying the area with mud, sand and ash.

The incident began after the management of Al-Ihsan Islamic Boarding School employed well diggers to find water sources in their grounds.

When excavators reached around 120 meters on Thursday (February 4), gas burst out of the well to a height of 15 meters.

Earth and rocks which were projected into the air by the gas damaged a school building.

Footage filmed today (February 6) showed the gas continuing to emerge from the ground spraying the surrounding area with mud.

The bursts of natural gas during the last three days have not stopped and are getting worse in Indonesia.

In footage filmed on Tenayan Raya, Pekanbaru, Riau province on today (February 6) show the gas bursts cover the area around with mud, sand and gray ash.

The ground around it was also full of sticky mud.

The gas burst incident began when the management of Al-Ihsan Islamic Boarding School employed well diggers to find water sources in the complex.

Tenayan Raya Subdistrict is an area where it is difficult to get water from artesian wells, so the people there have to drill the ground up to tens or even more than 100 meters.

When the excavation process reached around 119 meters on Thursday, February 4, at around 14.00 WIB, suddenly gas burst out of the well to a height of 15 meters.

Dozens of students from the Al-Ihsan Islamic Boarding School, Tenayan Raya District, Pekanbaru City, have been evacuated due to the burst of natural gas.

Initially, the bursts were only in the form of gas and ash, but at night they were also ejected in the form of hard material that destroyed the school building.

The bursting lasted until almost midnight. After that it subsided, and on Friday dawn black sand came out and in the morning the gas burst was mixed with mud.