Santiago - More than 5,000 people had been evacuated as of Monday in southern Chile, following the eruption of the Chaiten volcano.

On Monday, authorities evacuated the town of Futaleufu, some 60 kilometres from the volcano. Residents of the town of Chaiten had been evacuated over the weekend.

Futaleufu was covered with up to 20 centimetres of ash that had partially become a hardened crust as the result of recent rain, Mayor Arturo Carvallo told the daily El Tiempo.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who visited the ghost town of Chaiten on Sunday, was expected to visit Futaleufu Monday.

Agriculture is the main source of income in this thinly populated region some 1,000 kilometres south of the Chilean capital, Santiago, and Carvallo said it was now important to rescue livestock in the area.

The Chaiten volcano, which is more than 1,000 metres high, had been geologically inactive for more than 400 years, but erupted on Friday. It spewed ash into the atmosphere, covering nearby villages and forests.

Schools were closed as far away as the Argentine Patagonian province of Chubut, across the Andes, where regional authorities asked people to use roads only for emergencies.

A 20-kilometre-high column of smoke continued to rise from the volcano Monday, and the authorities did not rule out a more violent eruption including lava. (dpa)