Indonesia's Semeru volcano erupted on Sunday, spitting out a colossal cloud of ash that sent residents of villages on its side fleeing, a year to the day after another eruption that killed dozens.

Villagers living in the shadow of Mount Semeru, some 800 km from the capital Jakarta and located in the east of the island of Java, where it is the highest point at 3,676 meters, fled by the dozens as they approached the ash cloud 1.5 km high, taking away what they could.

According to the emergency services, nearly 2,000 of them were evacuated.

Some left in threes on motorbikes as local authorities sounded the alarm with bamboo drums and the sky darkened like the middle of the night, monsoon rain mixing with ash.

Emergency services reported "burning avalanches", caused by blocks of lava that broke off from the summit during the eruption and surged towards the base of the volcano.

Distribution of masks

No casualties were immediately reported, but authorities asked residents to stay at least five miles from the crater.

They also asked people to avoid a 13 km long area along a river southeast of Mount Semeru, towards which the volcanic ash cloud was moving.

The Center for Volcanology and Prevention of Geological Disasters (PVMBG) has raised the alert level around Mount Semeru from level three to the highest level four, its spokesperson Hendra Gunawan told Kompas TV.

"This means that danger threatens populated areas and the activity of the volcano has intensified," he explained.

Sunday evening, the PVMBG warned that the Semeru volcano was "still in the eruption phase", despite a decrease in the ash cloud.

"Activity remains very high overall," he said in a statement.



According to the emergency services, a total of 1,979 people from six villages have been relocated to 11 shelters opened for the occasion.

Authorities also distributed masks to residents to protect them from air pollution from the ash.

After the eruption, the internet was cut and the mobile phone network was down.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency has warned of a possible tsunami, caused by the eruption of the Indonesian volcano, in the islands of Miyako and Yaeyama, in the extreme south of the Japanese archipelago, according to the agency. Kyoto.

But nothing like that ultimately happened.

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