The landscape frozen and covered with ashes took on the appearance of an abandoned planet. The temporary toll of the eruption of the Semeru volcano in Indonesia, east of the island of Java, is already heavy as rescuers continue to search the area.
“The death toll is now thirteen. Rescuers found more bodies “disaster management agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday (December 5th). He said ten people trapped by the eruption that occurred on Saturday had been released alive. At least 57 people were injured in the eruption, including 41 with burns, the agency added.
Images showed a vast plume of gray smoke rising from the volcano’s crater on Saturday after 3 p.m. local time (7 a.m. in Paris), triggering panic among residents of surrounding villages who fled as the region plunged into darkness. in the middle of the afternoon. The village of Lumajang was covered with a thick layer of cold lava and ash, and residents of a dozen villages had to go to shelters and mosques to stay overnight.
130 active volcanoes on the archipelago
Mount Semeru, the highest in Java, rises to 3,676 meters. Images from Indonesia’s Meteorological and Geophysical Agency showed ash falling into the Indian Ocean. The last major eruption of Semeru dates from December 2020. It also caused the flight of thousands of people and covered entire villages.
Indonesia is on the “Circle of fire” of the Pacific, where the meeting of the continental plates causes a high seismic activity. This Southeast Asian archipelago has nearly 130 active volcanoes on its territory. End of 2018, the eruption of a volcano between the islands of Java and Sumatra caused an underwater landslide and a tsunami, killing nearly 400 people.