Flights to East Africa have been severely disrupted as ash from an Eritrean volcano spreads across the region and heads towards Saudi Arabia.

Several airlines said they had stopped flying to Eritrea, Sudan, Djibouti and Ethiopia.

The ash cloud was now changing direction, from north-west to south-west and had reached Sudan and Egypt, an Ethiopian academic said.

The cloud followed a volcanic eruption in Eritrea at the weekend.

It forced US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to cut short a three-nation tour of Africa on Monday.

'Size decreasing'

Initially only the German airline Lufthansa cancelled flights to Eritrea and neighbouring Ethiopia.

Now Ethiopian Airways has said it has cancelled flights to Sudan and Djibouti.

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