St. Vincent on red alert for 'imminent' volcanic eruption

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves on Thursday declared a disaster alert prompted by a change in the eruptive activity at the La Soufrière volcano, according to the country's National Emergency Management Organization.

The island is on red alert, meaning an eruption is "imminent now," NEMO said. Evacuation orders are in place in about a dozen districts of St. Vincent, affecting roughly 6,000 to 7,000 people, a spokesperson for the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre, or UWI-SRC, told CNN.