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Indonesian authorities raised the warning on Semeru volcano to the highest level on Sunday after an eruption spewed a column of ash high into the air, the country’s vulcanology agency said.
The evacuation of people, including children and seniors, living near the volcano in East Java province had also begun, said Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency, BNPB.
The plume from the volcano reached a height of 50,000 feet (15 km), said Japan’s Meteorology Agency, which was monitoring for the possibility of a tsunami there.
The eruption on the eastern part of Java island, some 640 km (400 miles) east of the capital Jakarta, follows a series of earthquakes on the west of the island, including one last month that killed more than 300 people.
