article_snippet.sent: Authorities issued a red alert for the towns of Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas in southern Chile.
article_snippet.sent: Both are popular tourist destinations.
article_snippet.sent: A 12-mile (20 kilometer) exclusion zone was established around the crater.
article_snippet.sent: At the beginning, it was small, and later, the cloud grew and later there was a huge cloud over you and true terror starts," said one Puerto Montt resident.
article_snippet.sent: Another person said: "It was impressive to see an enormous mushroom cloud, with the immense force of the volcano, and to see the ashes.
article_snippet.sent: At that point, there was a lot of panic, lots of chaos, traffic jams, people going to supermarkets, everyone looking for water, trying to take out money from the ATMs.
article_snippet.sent: The situation is relatively calm right now, although people are understandably anxious about what could happen tonight," Alejandro Verges, regional director at the Ministry of Interior and Public Safety said.
article_snippet.sent: CNN's Shasta Darlington and Marilia Brocchetto contributed to this report .