Multiple hikers killed, others rescued after volcano erupts in Indonesia

A volcanic eruption has killed three people and triggered a rescue operation to get more than a dozen hikers stranded near the crater of Indonesia's Mount Dukono to safety, officials said.

Singapore nationals and an Indonesian citizen were among those killed when the volcano, on the island of Halmahera in North Maluku province, erupted on Friday, according to the island's police chief and search and rescue officials.

Nine foreigners and 11 local hikers were climbing Mount Dukono at the time of the eruption, North Halmahera Police Chief Erlichson Pasaribu told Indonesia's Kompas TV.

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Seventeen of the 20 climbers had been safely evacuated, Iwan Ramdani, head of the Ternate Search and Rescue (SAR) Office, said at 6pm local time (9pm AEST). The bodies of the three people who had been killed remained on the mountain. Search operations have been suspended for Friday and will resume on Saturday.

A huge column of smoke and ash could be seen rising above the mountain in dramatic video from near the crater recorded by Alex Djangu, an Indonesian mountain guide.

Djangu was guiding two German tourists on Mount Dukono when he felt deep tremors before the eruption, telling CNN it was "very scary".

"I saw the small rocks and gravel sliding down because of the tremors, then I told my clients we have to run down," he said.

While Djangu and his group were able to safely evacuate, he said many hikers remained at the crater at the time of the eruption.

"When we were about 100 metres away, I saw two groups of local tourists, one group of nine people already close to the rim and the other were videoing for content."

"I hope they are still alive," he can be heard saying in the video.

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The volcano, he said, is highly active and continued to erupt into Friday afternoon "with supersonic sound".

Mount Dukono is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes, with authorities noting increased activity since late March.

Since December 2024, tourists and other climbers have been advised by the Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) not to take part in activities within a 4-kilometre radius of Mount Dukono's epicentre. According to the organisation, Dukono had seen a significant increase in explosive magmatic eruptions since March this year.

"When Mount Dukono does not erupt for several days, people need to be careful because it may be building up very high pressure. And that is what happened today," Djangu said in the video.

Rescue teams could be seen on the mountain on Friday, carrying at least one injured person on a stretcher through the forest, in photos from Indonesia's national search and rescue agency BASARNAS.

Indonesia sits on the "Ring of Fire", a band around the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes and volcanic activity frequently occur. One of the most seismically active zones on the planet, it stretches from Japan and Indonesia on one side of the Pacific to California and South America on the other.

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