On the island of Java in Indonesia, the Semeru volcano erupted on Sunday December 4, a year after a deadly disaster. The Center for Volcanology and Prevention of Geological Disasters (PVMBG) has decided to raise the alert level of Mount Semeru from level three to level four, the highest.
“This means that danger threatens populated areas and that the activity of the volcano has intensified”, explained his spokesperson, Hendra Gunawan, to the Kompas TV channel. Located in the east of the island of Java, of which it is the highest point, with an altitude of 3,676 meters, Mount Semeru spat an ash cloud about 1.5 km high on Sunday.
No casualties were reported immediately after the eruption, but Mr Gunawan advised nearby residents to stay at least 8km away from the crater. Authorities also asked people to avoid a 13 km long area along a river, towards which the volcanic ash cloud was moving.
Nearly 2,000 people evacuated
Videos shared with Agence France-Presse (AFP) by local rescue group Irannala Rescue showed a gigantic cloud rising from the crater and completely obscuring the sun, as well as surrounding villages covered in ash, bathed in a mist dark. The area was battered by the monsoon on Sunday afternoon, with rainwater mixing with ash, according to television stations.
Emergency services reported“burning avalanches”caused by blocks of lava, which broke off from the summit during the eruption and surged towards the base of the volcano. “A lot of people started to come down” from the flanks of the volcano, the head of the Lumajang district administration where the volcano is located told Kompas TV Thoriqul Haq. The inhabitants of the two most threatened villages fled on their own, added a spokesman for the local emergency services. According to the emergency services, nearly 2,000 of them have been evacuated.
Shelters have been set up to house displaced people, and authorities have distributed masks to nearby residents to protect them from air pollution from the ash. After the eruption, the internet was cut and the mobile phone network was down, according to an AFP journalist.
Warning of tsunami risk in Japan
For its part, the Japanese Meteorological Agency warned of a possible tsunami, caused by the eruption of the Indonesian volcano, around 6:30 a.m., in the islands of Miyako and Yaeyama, in the extreme south of the archipelago. Japanese, according to the Kyodo news agency. An hour later, however, no damage had been reported.
The last eruption of Mount Semeru, in December 2021, killed at least 51 people. Mudslides and ash engulfed entire villages and nearly 10,000 people had to flee their homes. Another eruption took place two days later. A bridge linking two districts in the region, being rebuilt after last year’s eruption, was heavily damaged again on Sunday, according to the PVMBG.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the meeting of continental plates causes strong volcanic and seismic activity. The Southeast Asian archipelago has about 130 active volcanoes.