(Jakarta) Indonesia’s Semeru volcano in east Java erupted on Saturday, blanketing its surroundings in a thick layer of smoke and ash and prompting thousands to flee their homes.
No casualties have yet been identified, according to the national agency for natural disasters. But relief workers had to evacuate residents as lava flows reached their villages and destroyed a bridge in the Lumajang region.
“Several regions were plunged into darkness after being covered by volcanic ash,” said agency spokesman Abdul Muhari, adding that shelters were “built in several localities of Lumajang”.
A video released by the agency shows residents, including children, running for shelter when the volcano erupted at 3 a.m. on Saturday.
Local authorities have also established a 5-kilometer security perimeter around the crater.
The last major eruption of Semeru dates from December 2020. It also caused the flight of thousands of people and covered entire villages.
Indonesia sits on the Pacific “ring of fire” where the meeting of the continental plates causes high seismic activity.
This Southeast Asian archipelago has nearly 130 active volcanoes on its territory.
At the end of 2018, the eruption of a volcano between the islands of Java and Sumatra had caused an underwater landslide and a tsunami, killing nearly 400 people.