Indonesia Evacuates Thousands as Volcanic Explosion hit Parts of Java

Mon Dec 05 2022
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Monitoring Desk 

ISLAMABAD/ JAKARTA: Indonesian authorities started evacuating residents after Monday’s powerful volcanic explosion in Mount Semeru in East Java.

The explosion at the island’s tallest volcanic-prone mountain prompted authorities to impose an 8-kilometer no-go zone and forced the shifting of entire villages.

Volcanic explosion

The 3,676-metre volcano exploded at 2.46 pm local time on Sunday. Footage shot by people showed Mt Semeru spewing a monstrosity cloud of grey ash high above its crater, which later engulfed the mountain and local rice paddy fields, roads, and bridges and changed the sky dark. 

volcanic

Pictures shared by the Ministry of Environment on social media showed a pyroclastic flow of lava, rocks and hot gases gushing down the mountainside.

Tholib Vatelehan, a Basarnas spokesperson, said that the local search and rescue agency deployed groups to the worst-affected places near Mount Semeru to assess the destruction, with low rainfall giving some reprieve, Tholib Vatelehan.

He said that on Sunday the rainfall level on the mountain was high due to the creation of material from the top of the peak to come down. But today, there’s no rain, so it is relatively safe.

On Sunday, Indonesia’s geological and volcanology hazard mitigation agency raised a high alert for Mt Semeru. The agency warned locals not to go near within 8 kilometers of the mountains area or 500 meters of the sides of the river due to the risks of lava flows.

Semeru broke out the previous year; more than 50 people were killed, and displaced hundreds more.

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