This morning the Semeru volcano in Indonesia erupted with a thunderous explosion, covering streets and houses in volcanic ash and prompting the evacuation of nearly 2.000 residents in the province of East Java.
The Indonesian disaster management agency (BNPB) says that so far no injuries or deaths have been reported and that the displaced have found refuge in public facilities. More than 20.000 masks have been distributed to mitigate the respiratory risks caused by volcanic ash.
Semeru, which is about 640 kilometers (400 miles) southeast of the capital Jakarta, began erupting at 2:46am. The BNPB has set alert level 4 on a scale going up to 7.
Residents will therefore have to stay at least 17 kilometers away from the center of the Semeru eruption, for now the volcanic ash has reached up to 12 kilometers from the epicenter.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said the eruption reached a height of 15 kilometers and there were no tsunami warnings after the eruption.
Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, sits on the “Ring of Fire", a band around the Pacific Ocean that triggers frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity.
At 3.676 meters, Semeru is the highest volcano in Java and is one of the most active.
More than 50 people were killed and thousands more displaced when it erupted last year. Compared to the 2021 eruption, experts say, today there is a greater amount of magma. Sunday's eruption in East Java follows a series of earthquakes in the western part of the island, including one last month that killed 300 people.