Bogota - Some 13,000 people were ordered to leave their homes on the slopes of the Colombian volcano Nevado del Huila on Tuesday, hours after it started spewing ash and lumps of lava and rock - called pyroclasts - into the air.

Colombian authorities noted that the situation was calm early Tuesday, but there was still movement within the volcano - the tallest in Colombia at 5,364 metres - prompting the persistence of preventive measures.

The Andean volcano's erupted last year, causing a mudslide that destroyed several houses and a road but spared human injury.

Some 14 years ago, volcanic activity caused the snow on the volcano to melt, and led to an avalanche on the Paez river which killed about 1,000 people.(dpa)