Indonesia’s Mount Semeru yesterday erupted spewing hot ash clouds a mile into the sky and sending rivers of lava down its side, sparking the evacuation of nearly 2,000 people exactly one year after its last major eruption killed dozens.
The eruption of the highest mountain on Indonesia’s main island of Java, about 800km southeast of the capital, Jakarta, prompted authorities to raise the alert status to the highest level.
“Hot avalanches” caused by piles of lava at the tip of the 3,676m volcano slid down after the eruption, Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Abdul Muhari said in a statement.
Photo: AP
The increased threat level “means the danger has threatened the people’s settlement and the volcano’s activity has escalated,” Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation Center spokesman Hendra Gunawan told broadcaster Kompas TV.
No casualties or injuries were reported immediately after the eruption, but Gunawan warned local residents not to travel within 8km of the crater after the threat level was raised to four.
The BNPB said that 1,979 people were taken to 11 shelters, with at least six villages affected by the eruption.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Images on local TV showed evacuees, mostly women and children, taking shelter in a school.
Videos shared by local rescue group Irannala Rescue showed a huge black cloud rising from the volcano’s crater, engulfing the sky and blocking the sun in nearby villages.
The villages were being battered by monsoon rains by the afternoon and the rainfall was mixing with volcanic ash, Kompas reported.
Residents were also told to avoid a southeastern area 13km along a river in the direction where the ash was traveling.
“A lot of people have started to go down,” Thoriqul Haq, the administration head for Lumajang Regency, where the volcano is located, told Kompas.
Most residents in the two most-threatened villages have fled, Lumajang Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Patria Dwi Hastiadi said.
The Japan Meteorological Agency earlier warned that a tsunami was possible in the southern islands of Miyako-jima and Yaeyama in Okinawa Prefecture, Kyodo News reported, but the agency said no significant tidal changes were observed.
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
PERSONAL DATA: The implicated KMT members allegedly compiled their petitions by copying names from party lists without the consent of the people concerned Judicial authorities searched six locations yesterday and questioned six people, including one elderly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member and five KMT Youth League associates, about alleged signature forgery and fraud relating to their recall efforts against two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. After launching a probe into alleged signature forgery and related fraud in the KMT’s recall effort, prosecutors received a number of complaints, including about one petition that had 1,748 signatures of voters whose family members said they had already passed away, and also voters who said they did not approve the use of their name, Taipei Deputy Chief Prosecutor
COUNTERINTELLIGENCE TRAINING: The ministry said 87.5 percent of the apprehended Chinese agents were reported by service members they tried to lure into becoming spies Taiwanese organized crime, illegal money lenders, temples and civic groups are complicit in Beijing’s infiltration of the armed forces, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a report yesterday. Retired service members who had been turned to Beijing’s cause mainly relied on those channels to infiltrate the Taiwanese military, according to the report to be submitted to lawmakers ahead of tomorrow’s hearing on Chinese espionage in the military. Chinese intelligence typically used blackmail, Internet-based communications, bribery or debts to loan sharks to leverage active service personnel to do its bidding, it said. China’s main goals are to collect intelligence, and develop a
RSS