2000 Evacuated as Indonesia Issues Highest Warning – Indonesian officials say that a volcano has erupted, sending a cloud of ash 15 km into the sky and forcing nearly 2,000 people to leave their homes in the east of Java island. They have issued their most serious warning for the area. As soon as the Semeru volcano erupted, there were no reports of anyone getting hurt. Indonesia’s transport ministry also said that air travel was not affected, but that two regional airports had been warned to be careful.
“Most roads have been closed since this morning and now it is raining volcanic ash and it has covered the view of the mountain,” Bayu Deny Alfianto, a community volunteer, told Reuters by telephone from near the volcano. Semeru, the tallest mountain on Java, erupted last year killing more than 50 people and displacing thousands. Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) said 1,979 people had been moved to 11 shelters and authorities had distributed masks to residents.
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The Japan Meteorological Agency, which was at first worried that the volcano could cause a tsunami, said the volcano’s ash plume rose 15 km into the air (50,000 feet). The eruption is 400 miles (640 km) east of the capital, Jakarta. It comes after a series of earthquakes in the west of Java, including one last month that killed more than 300 people. Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, or PVMBG, raised the level of volcanic activity to its highest level and told people not to get within 5 miles (8 km) of Semeru.
It said that hot ash clouds had moved about 12 miles (19 km) from the center of the eruption. The head of the PVMBG, Hendra Gunawan, said that more magma may have built up than before, when the volcano erupted in 2021 and 2020. This could mean that a bigger area is in more danger. Villagers were seen moving away from the slopes of the volcano in a video sent to Reuters by local police. Some of them had their belongings stacked on their motorbikes. The ash from a volcano covered a broken bridge.
With 142 volcanoes, Indonesia is home to 8.6 million people living within 10km (six miles) of one – the world’s largest population living in close range of a volcano. The deadly quake that hit West Java in late November was 5.6-magnitude but at a shallow depth. A 6.1-quake struck at a deeper depth on Saturday, sending people running from buildings, but it did not cause major damage or casualties.
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