Jakarta – Thousands of residents in Indonesia's East Java were on high alert on Monday after a violent eruption at the island's tallest volcano prompted authorities to impose an 8km no-go zone and forced evacuations of entire villages.
The provincial search and rescue agency deployed teams to the worst-affected areas near Mount Semeru to assess damage, with low rainfall giving some reprieve, said Tholib Vatelehan, a spokesperson for the national search and rescue agency, known as Basarnas.
“Yesterday, the rainfall level was high, causing all the material from the top of the mountain to come down. But today, so far, there's no rain, so it’s relatively safe,” he said.
No casualties have been reported and there has not been any immediate disruption to air travel.
The 3 676-metre volcano erupted at 2.46pm (9.46pm South African time) on Sunday. Footage shot by local residents showed Semeru spewing a giant cloud of grey ash high above its crater, which later engulfed the mountain and surrounding rice paddy fields, roads and bridges, and turned the sky black. A video shared by the Environment Ministry on Twitter showed an explosion of lava, rocks and hot gases gushing down the mountainside.
People fled the eruption on motorcycles, with almost 2 500 people forced to evacuate, authorities said.
Indonesia's volcanology and geological hazard mitigation agency raised the alert level for Semeru to the highest level on Sunday. The agency also issued a warning to residents not to approach within 8km of the summit, or 500m of riversides, because of the risk of lava flows.
Semeru erupted last year killing more than 50 people and displacing thousands more.
The latest eruption, about 640km east of the capital, Jakarta, followed a series of earthquakes in the west of Java, including one last month that killed more than 300 people.
An archipelago of 270 million that sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth.
With 142 volcanoes, Indonesia has the largest population globally living in close range to a volcano, including 8.6 million within 10km.
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