Nearly 1,000 people from three villages on the Indonesian island of Java have been forced to flee to shelters after the eruption of its highest volcano.
More than 170 people, including climbers, porters, guides, tourism officials and tourists, were rescued after Mount Semeru erupted on Wednesday.
No casualties have been reported during the evacuation of those most at risk in the district of Lumajang, according to Indonesia‘s disaster mitigation agency.
The eruption sent searing clouds of hot ash and a mixture of rock, lava and gas up to eight miles (13km) down the volcano’s slopes, officials said.
They had set out to climb the 3,676m (12,060ft) peak on Wednesday and were stranded at the Ranu Kumbolo camping area before being taken to safety, Priatin Hadi Wijaya, head of the Centre for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation, told reporters.
Hetty Triastuty, from the centre, warned climbers may have been exposed to volcanic ash.
A thick column of hot clouds rose 1.2 miles (2km) into the air during the eruptions, from midday to dusk on Wednesday, as scientists raised the volcano’s alert to the highest level, Indonesia’s geology agency chief Muhammad Wafid said.
The eruptions that unfolded throughout the day blanketed several villages with thick volcanic ash and blocked out sunlight. Local media reported that two motorcyclists crashed due to hot ash on a bridge, resulting in severe burns to their bodies.
A series of pyroclastic density currents (PDCs), defined by the British Geological Survey as “hot, ground-hugging flows of ash and debris” capable of moving at hundreds of metres per second, travelled down the mountain’s southern slope through the Besuk Kobokan River valley slopes, Mr Wafid said.
“Mount Semeru’s seismicity activity indicated that the eruption continued at a high level, with increasing numbers of signals indicating avalanches,” he added.
Mr Wafid warned people to keep away from an area along the Besuk Kobokan River, which is the path of the lava flow, adding that the five-mile (8km) danger zone may be expanded.
Seismic activity suggests the eruption will continue, officials said.
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Mount Semeru, also known as Mahameru, has erupted numerous times in the past 200 years. But as with many of Indonesia’s 129 active volcanoes, tens of thousands of people continue to live nearby.
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A total of 51 people died after Semeru’s last major eruption in December 2021, while several hundred others were burned in villages that were buried in layers of mud and more than 10,000 people were forced to flee their homes.
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The Indonesian archipelago sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines, and is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.
