Java's Highest Volcano Erupts Causing Casualties and Sparking Evacuations

People living beneath the shadow of the highest volcano on the Indonesian island of Java have been fleeing an eruption which has spewed plumes of ash into the air, blanketing surrounding villages.

The sudden eruption of Mount Semeru in East Java's Lumajang district at around 2.50 p.m. local time on Saturday has sparked alarm. Local outlet Detik News reported that at least 10 people are being treated for burn injuries.

District head Thoriqul Haq told local media that the ash has "turned several villages to darkness," the Associated Press reported.

He said that the road and bridge connecting Lumajang and the nearby city of Malang had been cut and that evacuations were under way. "This has been a very pressing, rapid condition since it erupted," he told Reuters.

The eruption coincided with a thunderstorm and rain which pushed lava and debris and formed thick mud.

Hundreds of people have been moved to temporary shelters or have left the area for their safety. Dramatic video shared on social media showed people with faces wet from rain mixed with volcanic dust running in fear to avoid the huge ash cloud.

Residents in Pronojiwo District said that about 30 houses that were in the lava flow path had collapsed, according to local news outlet Kompas TV.

Social media posts showed clips of people covered in ash. One user wrote "pray for #semeru" next to a video of people making their way through the ash cloud.

Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) said that the affected areas from the eruption included Besuk Kobokan, Sapitarang Village, Pronojiwo District, and Lumajang.

It tweeted that lava avalanches "were observed with a sliding distance of approximately 500-800 meters with the center of the avalanche located approximately 500 meters below the crater."

It said in a tweet, according to a translation, that its teams had headed to the scene in the Candipuro-Pronojiwo sector "to carry out monitoring, rapid assessment, data collection, evacuation and other actions."

Semeru had last erupted in January, with no casualties. However, with the latest eruption, the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) in Darwin, Australia said the ash seemed to have detached from the summit and was heading south-west.

Meanwhile, a monitoring body issued a warning to airlines of an ash cloud rising up to 15,000m (50,000 ft), the BBC reported.

Mt Semeru is among Indonesia's nearly 130 active volcanoes in the archipelago country of more than 270 million people, which is located along the Pacific "Ring of Fire."
At 3,676-meter (12,060-foot), Semeru is Java's tallest mountain and has erupted at least 55 times since 1818, 10 of which have caused fatalities.