Lumagang - (AFP) - Mount Semeru volcano in Indonesia erupted Sunday, spewing clouds of hot ash into the sky and spewing torrents of lava below, prompting authorities to raise the alert status to the highest level.

The eruption of the highest mountain on the Indonesian island of Java, about 800 km southeast of the capital, Jakarta, led to the evacuation of residents of nearby villages, exactly a year after the last major eruption of the volcano killed dozens of people.

Hendra Gunawan, spokesman for the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation, told Compass TV that raising the alert level "means that the danger threatens inhabited places and the volcano's activity has increased."

For his part, the spokesman for the National Agency for Disaster Mitigation, Abdel-Mahari, said in a statement that "hot volcanic landslides" caused by piles of lava at the crater of the volcano, which is 3,676 meters high, slipped after its eruption.

No deaths or injuries were reported immediately, but Gunawan advised people living in the vicinity of the volcano to stay at least eight kilometers away from its crater after raising the alert level from three to four.

Gunawan reported that shelters had been prepared for residents who were evacuating nearby villages.

Images broadcast on local television showed evacuees, mostly women and children, sheltering in a school.

Videos sent to AFP by local rescue group Iranala Rescue showed a huge black cloud rising from the volcano's crater, blocking sunlight over nearby villages.

The Kompas TV channel reported that monsoon rains fell on the villages in the afternoon, which mixed the rain with volcanic ash.

Residents were also asked to avoid an area 13 km southeast along a river in the direction the ash was traveling.
Most of the residents of the two most vulnerable villages have left on their own, said Patria Doi Hastiadi, spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency in Lumagang.

For its part, the Japanese "Kyodo" news agency reported that the Japanese Meteorological Authority had warned earlier of the possibility of tsunamis in the islands of Miyako and Yaeyama in southern Okinawa Prefecture, but there have been no reports of any damage so far.
The Internet and telephone networks were cut off after the volcano erupted, according to a journalist at Agence France-Presse.

The local rescue agency distributed gas masks to residents near the volcano due to the risk of ash contamination of the air.

Mount Semeru last erupted exactly a year ago, killing at least 51 people and damaging more than 5,000 homes. Also, landslides, mud and ash swept through villages and forced about 10,000 people to flee their homes. Two days later, the volcano erupted again.

A bridge in the area, which was rebuilt after last year's eruption, was badly damaged again Sunday, according to a media official at the Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation.

Indonesia is located on the "Ring of Fire" in the Pacific Ocean, where tectonic plates meet, and regularly witnesses earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.

Indonesia, located in Southeast Asia, has about 130 active volcanoes.

A volcano erupted in the strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in late 2018, causing an undersea landslide and tsunami that killed more than 400 people.