Indonesia volcano eruption sparks alert

JAKARTA－Thousands of residents in Indonesia's East Java were on high alert on Monday, after an eruption at the island's tallest volcano prompted authorities to impose an 8-kilometer 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 the damage, with low rainfall giving some reprieve.

"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," Tholib Vatelehan, spokesperson of the Basarnas search agency, told Reuters.

No casualties have been reported and there has not been any immediate disruption to air travel.

Heavy rains had eroded and finally collapsed the lava dome atop the 3,676-meter volcano, causing an avalanche of blistering gas and lava down its slopes toward a nearby river. Searing gas raced down the sides of the mountain, smothering entire villages and destroying a bridge that had just been rebuilt after a powerful eruption last year.

The volcano erupted at 2:46 pm local time on Sunday. Footage shot by locals showed Semeru spewing a giant cloud of gray 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 a pyroclastic flow 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 on Sunday raised the alert level for Semeru to the highest level. The agency also issued a warning to residents not to approach within 8 km of the summit, or 500 meters of riversides due to risks of lava flows.

Semeru erupted last year killing more than 50 people and displacing thousands more.

Agencies Via Xinhua