Video showed local residents fleeing as Indonesia's Mount Semeru volcano erupted on Saturday 4 December.

A huge cloud of ash and smoke towers over the villages below.

Witnesses have reported a thick rain of falling ash covering a wide area.

Semeru is the highest mountain on the island of Java and is popular with tourists and hikers.

Mount Semeru erupted on Saturday (4/12/2021), starting with a lahar incident at 13.30 WIB.



This was confirmed by the Head of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) Andiani.

The Semeru eruption in the form of hot clouds avalanches, on December 4, 2021 at 13:30 WIB, begins with a lava incident.

It is recorded on the seismogram that the maximum amplitude of 25 mm is still ongoing," said Andiani, when confirmed by Kompas.com, Saturday (12/4/2021).

He explained, the hot cloud avalanches leading to the Besuk Kobokan area.


It is currently still monitoring the situation on the ground. PVMBG is also in the process of checking the hot cloud glide distance.

The eruption of Mount Semeru this time was also widely discussed by netizens on Twitter social media.

Some uploads show videos of the moments of the eruption.

Seen so big puffs of smoke around the mountain.

In the video, many children in one area run away from the location.