JAKARTA (Reuters) – The Semeru volcano, located on the island of Java in Indonesia, erupted early on Sunday morning, throwing up a plume of ash, prompting authorities to ask people to avoid the area and to carry out evacuations.
Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geohazard Mitigation Center, PVMBG, has raised the level of volcanic activity from III to IV, the highest, which means that danger threatens populated areas and the activity of the volcano s is intensified.
The authorities therefore asked residents not to travel within an 8 km radius of the center of the eruption, located 640 km east of the capital Jakarta, adding that clouds of hot ash had moved up to at 19 km.
The PVMBG Center says magma reserves could be larger than in 2021 and 2020 eruptions, meaning hot ash clouds could reach further than the past two years and affect more residences.
The eruption of Semeru, at the same time last year, had left more than 50 dead and several missing. Thousands of people had to be displaced.
The evacuation of people living near the volcano had also started in the morning. So far, 93 people, including children and the elderly, have been redirected to shelters, the Indonesian Disaster Prevention Agency (BNPB) said in a statement.
The plume of smoke rose 15 kilometers high, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency, which said the eruption should not pose a risk of tsumani.
This new event in East Java follows several major earthquakes in the region, including one that killed more than 300 people last month.
The volcano erupted at 2:46 a.m. local time (1946 GMT Saturday), BNPB said. Videos posted on social media show clouds of gray ash covering the surrounding areas.
With 142 volcanoes, Indonesia has the world’s largest population living near a volcano, with 8.6 million within a 10 km (6 mile) radius.
(Reporting Stefanno Sulaiman and Angie Teo in Jakarta; Additional reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto in Tokyo, French version Camille Raynaud and Caroline Pailliez)