Indonesia volcano eruption: 14 people are believed to have died while several have been injured in the incident, officials confirmed.
A person in the district of Lumajang captured military and police officials digging up bodies using their hands.
Houses were dug up to the roofs, and cars completely submerged.
Taufiq Ismail Marzuqi captured the effort to exhume bodies and said to Reuters the attempts to save the bodies had been “very dire.”
Eleven villages in Lumajang, located within East Java, were coated with volcanic Ash. As a result, 56 people were injured, and many suffered burns when they mistakenly believed that the hot mudflow was flooding.
“There were 10 people carried away by the mudflow,” said Salim, who lives in Kampung Renting. Kampung Renting.
“One of them was almost saved. He was told to run away but said, ‘I can’t, who will feed my cows?'”
A man searching for survivors reported that 10 people were missing from his village. Another person described what transpired.
“Locals here thought it was just usual floods. We did not know it was hot mud. Then, suddenly, the sky turned dark as rains and hot smoke came. Thankfully, it was raining, so we could breathe,” said the man. He explained to AFP.
The relatives of victims of Lumajang located in East Java say they have not been able to bring their loved ones home since some bodies are not yet identified.
A spokesperson from Indonesia’s disaster management agency (BNPB) stated that the wounded were treated in various medical and hospital facilities.
According to the agency, around 1300 people have been evacuated from the region, and 10 workers from sand mines trapped in structures were rescued. Shelters for rescue workers have been outfitted with face masks, food bodies bags, tarps and face masks.
The evacuation was slowed by the choking smoke, power blackout, and storms of rain that occurred during the eruption, which transformed the debris into the dirt. A bridge that connects the region to the town of Malang was also damaged in the outbreak.
The director of Indonesia’s geological agency has said that heavy rains falling on the crater’s slope on Mt Semeru caused it to collapse partially and trigger the eruption.
The official said that there was no change in seismicity that could indicate a difference in magma flow.
The Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC), located in Darwin, Australia, said the cloud of Ash caused by the eruption appeared to have disappeared.
The VAAC gives aviation industry information on the position and movement of Volcanic Ash, which could pose a risk to aviation.
Ash that forms on the cool parts of plane engines could block airflow, which could cause engines to stall or even fail.
Also, it can hinder visibility for the pilots and impact the quality of air in the cabin, which makes oxygen masks essential.
Mount Semeru has reached a nearly perpetual state of eruption. It often releases Ash at around 4,300m. Therefore, the explosion of Saturday was a “pretty significant increase in intensity,” Campbell Biggs, a meteorologist from the VAAC, reported to the BBC.
- What does volcanic Ash affect planes?
Mt Semeru is 3,676m above sea level. It is one of Indonesia’s nearly 130 active volcanoes. The most recent eruption was in December of 2020 and forced thousands of people to seek refuge.
Indonesia is situated in the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where continental plates create frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
Videos posted by emergency officials and local media showed people fleeing as a massive Ash cloud erupted behind them.
