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Semeru Volcano in Lumajang County in East Java Province spewed thick ash columns more than 1,500 meters high on Sunday.

Villages and nearby towns were covered in falling ash, blocking out the sun, but no casualties were reported, the Associated Press reported.

Improved weather conditions on Monday allowed rescuers to resume evacuation efforts and searches for possible victims after the tallest volcano on Indonesia's most populous Java island erupted, triggered by monsoon rains.

Hundreds of rescuers were dispatched on Monday to the worst-hit towns of Sumberuluk and Supiturang, where houses and mosques were buried to their roofs by tonnes of volcanic ash.

Heavy rains had eroded and eventually collapsed the lava dome at the top of the 3,676-meter (3,676-meter) volcano, triggering an eruption.

The pyroclastic flow of hot gas raced down the mountain's slopes, suffocating entire villages and destroying a bridge that had just been rebuilt after a powerful eruption of the same volcano last year.

Semeru's last major eruption was in December 2021, when it killed 51 people and buried villages in tons of mud and ash.

Hundreds more suffered severe burns and the eruption forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people.

The government moved 2,970 houses out of the danger zone, including from the village of Sumbervulukh.

Lumajang District Chief Torikil Hak said the villagers, who had not yet forgotten last year's eruption, fled alone when they heard rumblings from the mountain on Sunday so "casualties could be avoided".

Spectacular eruption of the Stromboli volcano

"They have learned an important lesson on how to avoid the danger of an eruption," he said as he inspected a damaged bridge in the village of Qajar Kuning.

He added that nearly 2,000 people fled on Sunday to emergency shelters in several schools, but many returned to their homes on Monday to tend to their livestock and protect their property.