Indonesia: death toll rises to 14 after eruption of Semeru volcano
The death toll from the eruption of the Semeru volcano on Indonesia’s Java island has risen to 14, with nearly 100 others injured, the country’s disaster mitigation agency has said.
Mount Semeru, the highest volcano on Indonesia’s most densely populated island of Java, spewed thick columns of ash more than 12,000 meters into the sky on Saturday, with searing gas and lava flowing down its slopes and triggering panic among people living nearby.
Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for country’s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB), said in a news release on Sunday that 14 people had been killed in the eruption and seven people were still missing. Ninety-eight were injured, including two pregnant women, and 902 have been evacuated.
Muhari had earlier told Reuters that 10 people trapped after the eruption had been evacuated to safety. Thoriqul Haq, a local official in Lumajang, had said that sand miners had been trapped around their work sites.
The eruption also severed a strategic bridge connecting two areas in the nearby district of Lumajang with the city of Malang and decimated buildings, authorities said.
“Thick columns of ash have turned several villages to darkness,” Haq told TVOne, adding that several hundred people were moved to temporary shelters or had left for other safe areas.
Television reports showed people running in panic under a huge ash cloud, their faces wet from rain mixed with volcanic dust. The 3,676-metre (12,060-ft) Semeru had last erupted in January, with no casualties.
At least 11 villages were affected by the eruption, with emergency service footage from one town on Sunday showing a desolate scene, with roofs of houses protruding from the coat of mud that had destroyed them.
In the Sumberwuluh area, thick, grey ash coated damaged houses, while volunteers tried to turn away motorists who wanted to go back to their homes near Semeru, a Reuters witness said.
An official at Indonesia’s search and rescue agency told news channel Metro TV that evacuations have been suspended due to hot clouds hampering efforts. Other obstacles include heavy rocks and hot volcanic sediment that is limiting movement, a local disaster mitigation agency official said.
In the lead-up to the eruption, a thunderstorm and days of rain had eroded and finally collapsed the lava dome atop Semeru, said geological survey center head Eko Budi Lelono.
He said flows of searing gas and lava traveled up to 800 meters to a nearby river. People were advised to stay five kilometres from the crater’s mouth, the agency said.
Liswanto, the head of Semeru’s monitoring post, said his office had informed the community and the miners that hot ash could tumble down from Semeru’s crater at any time, after sensors picked up increased activity in the past week.
But some residents who fled to a government shelter near Lumajang district’s head office said authorities did not convey any information to them about the volcano’s activities.
“Suddenly everything went dark, the bright afternoon turned into night. A rumbling sound and heat forced us to run to the mosque,” said Fatmah, a resident who fled to the shelter from Curah Kobokan, about five kilometres from the crater. “It was a far stronger eruption than in January.”
Transportation ministry spokesperson Adita Irawati said her office issued a notice on Saturday for all airlines to avoid routes near the volcano. By Sunday, Australia’s volcanic ash advisory centre said the ash had dissipated, according to satellite imagery.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 270 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines.
Separately, an earthquake of magnitude 6 struck north of Halmahera on Sunday, the European-Mediterranean seismological centre said. Halmahera is about 2,000 km north-east of Semeru.