Indonesia's Mount Semeru erupts, blanketing villages with ash, prompting evacuations
Jakarta (AP): Indonesia's Mount Semeru, the highest peak on Java island, erupted Wednesday, blanketing several villages with falling ash, prompting evacuations and leading authorities to raise the alert to the highest level.
Mount Semeru in East Java province unleashed searing clouds of hot ash and a mixture of rock, lava and gas that travelled up to 7 kilometres down its slopes several times from midday to dusk, while a thick column of hot clouds rose 2 kilometres into the air, Indonesia's Geology Agency said in a statement.
The eruptions that unfolded throughout the day forced authorities to raise the volcano's alert level twice, from the third-highest level to the highest, the agency said. No casualties have been reported.
More than 300 residents in the three villages most at risk in the district of Lumajang were evacuated to government shelters, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency's spokesperson Abdul Muhari.
He said increased activity of the volcano on Wednesday afternoon prompted authorities to widen the danger zone to 8 kilometres from the crater. People were advised to keep away from an area along the Besuk Kobokan River, which is the path of the lava flow as searing gas flowed down Semeru's slopes.
Videos on social media showed a dense cloud of ash sweeping through a forested valley to a river beneath a bridge. Residents, some with faces smeared with volcanic dust and rain, fled to temporary shelters or left for other safe areas.
Local media reported that authorities are struggling to rescue about 178 people stranded on the 3,676-metre mountain at the Ranu Kumbolo monitoring post. The group includes 137 climbers, 15 porters, 7 guides and 6 tourism officials, according to an official with the Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park, TNBTS.
“They are currently safe at Ranu Kumbolo monitoring post,” Endrip Wahyutama, a TNBTS spokesperson, said in video statement, adding that the post is located 4.5 kilometres from the crater on the northern slope of the mountain, which is not in the path of the hot cloud flow that was observed moving to south-southeast. Bad weather and rain forced them to spend the night there, he said.
Semeru, also known as Mahameru, has erupted numerous times in the past 200 years. Still, as is the case with many of the 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia, tens of thousands of people continue to live on its fertile slopes.
Semeru's last major eruption was in December 2021 when it left 51 people dead and several hundred others burned in villages that were buried in layers of mud. The eruption forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people. The government moved about 2,970 houses out of the danger zone.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 280 million people, sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines, and is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.
Incredible scene of the eruption of Mount Semeru in East Java, Indonesia 🇮🇩
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
