Thousands on alert in Indonesia's Java after Mt. Semeru eruption - Reuters

JAKARTA, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Thousands of residents successful Indonesia's East Java were connected precocious alert connected Monday aft a convulsive eruption astatine the island's tallest volcano prompted authorities to enforce an 8-kilometer no-go portion and forced evacuations of full villages.

The provincial hunt and rescue bureau deployed teams to the worst-affected areas adjacent Mount Semeru to measure damage, with debased rainfall giving immoderate reprieve, Tholib Vatelehan, a Basarnas spokesperson, told Reuters.

"Yesterday, the rainfall level was high, causing each the worldly from the apical of the upland to travel down. But today, truthful far, there's nary rain, truthful its comparatively safe," helium said.

No casualties person been reported and determination has not been immoderate contiguous disruption to aerial travel.

The 3,676-metre volcano erupted astatine 2.46pm section clip connected Sunday (0746GMT). Footage changeable by section residents showed Mt. Semeru spewing a elephantine unreality of grey ash precocious supra its crater, which aboriginal engulfed the upland and surrounding atom paddy fields, roads and bridges, and turned the entity black. A video shared by the Environment Ministry connected Twitter showed a pyroclastic travel of lava, rocks and blistery gases gushing down the mountainside.

People fled the eruption connected motorcycles, with astir 2,500 radical forced to evacuate, authorities said.

Indonesia's volcanology and geological hazard mitigation bureau connected Sunday raised the alert level for Mt. Semeru to the highest level. The bureau besides issued a informing to residents not to attack wrong 8 km (5 miles) of the summit, oregon 500 metres of riversides owed to risks of lava flows.

Semeru erupted past twelvemonth sidesplitting much than 50 radical and displacing thousands more.

The eruption, immoderate 640 km (400 miles) eastbound of the capital, Jakarta, follows a bid of earthquakes successful the westbound of Java, including 1 past period that killed much than 300 people.

An archipelago of 270 cardinal that sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is 1 of the astir disaster-prone nations connected earth.

With 142 volcanoes, Indonesia has the largest colonisation globally surviving successful adjacent scope to a volcano, including 8.6 cardinal wrong 10km (6.2 miles).

Reporting by Ananda Teresia; Writing by Kate Lamb; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor

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