The death toll from the Semeru volcano eruption on Indonesia’s Java island has risen to 13 and more than 100 people have been injured.
Mount Semeru, the tallest volcano IndonesiaThick columns of ash rose more than 12,000 meters into the sky on Saturday, Java’s most densely populated island, with gas and lava flowing down its slopes, causing panic among people living nearby .
The country’s Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Abdul Muhari said in a news release on Sunday that 13 people were killed in the blast and seven were still missing. Eighty-eight were injured, including two pregnant women, and 902 were evacuated.
Muhri had earlier told Reuters that 10 people trapped after the blast had been evacuated. Thorikul Haque, a local official in Lumajung, said the sand miners were trapped around their work sites.
Officials said the blast also broke a strategic bridge connecting two areas of nearby Lumajang district with Malang city and destroyed buildings.
“Dense columns of ash have turned many villages into darkness,” Haque told TVOne, adding that several hundred people had been moved to temporary shelters or left for other safer areas.
Television reports showed people running in panic under a giant ash cloud, their faces soaked in rain mixed with volcanic dust. The 3,676 m (12,060 ft) Semeru last erupted in January, with no casualties.
In the lead up to the eruption, a typhoon and days of rain followed, and eventually the lava dome atop Semeru collapsed, said Eko Budi Lleno, head of the Geological Survey Center.
He said the searing gas and lava flow went up to 800 meters into a nearby river. The agency said people have been advised to stay five kilometers away from the crater’s mouth.
The head of Semeru’s outpost, Liswanto, said his office had informed the community and miners that hot ash from Semeru’s crater could fall down at any time, following an increase in activity by sensors last week.
But some residents who fled to a government shelter near the head office of Lumajang district said officials did not give them any information about the volcano’s movements.
“Suddenly everything turned dark, the bright afternoon turned into night. The sound of thunder and the heat forced us to run towards the mosque,” said Fatma, a resident who sheltered from Kura Kobokan, about five kilometers from the crater “It was a far stronger eruption than in January.”
Transport ministry spokeswoman Adita Iravati said her office on Saturday issued a notice to all airlines to avoid routes near the volcano. She said flight operations were still going on as scheduled and officials would continue to monitor the situation.
The Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Center said the ash dispersion from Semeru was moving to the southwest at 50 knots.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 270 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity as it sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a series of horseshoe-shaped fault lines.
Separately, a magnitude 6 earthquake struck north of Halmahera on Sunday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center said. Halmahera is about 2,000 km north-east of Semeru.
AP/Reuters