Jakarta, Nov. 21 – Indonesia has raised the alert level to four due to the eruption of Mount Semeru on the island of Java, where more than a dozen eruptions have been recorded in the past 24 hours.
The Department of Volcanology stated that the situation remains active and elevated the emergency following the expulsion on Wednesday of pyroclastic flows (dangerous avalanches of gas, ash, and volcanic rock fragments) down the mountain's slope.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency also recommended banning activities within eight kilometers of the crater.
On Thursday, villages and roads near Mount Semeru awoke covered by a blanket of volcanic ash.
In response to this situation, Indonesian authorities evacuated nearly a thousand people, including 137 climbers, and as a precautionary measure, many local residents gathered their belongings and temporarily abandoned their homes, local sources report.
Mount Semeru, one of the most active volcanoes in the Indonesian archipelago, during its successive recent eruptions emitted huge ash clouds and ejected lava and rocks up to 15.5 kilometers down the slope.
Dozens of videos with striking images of these events are circulating on social media.
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