Multiple hikers killed, others rescued after volcano erupts in Indonesia

By Helen Regan, Isaac Yee, Masrur Jamaluddin, CNN

(CNN) — A volcanic eruption 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 on Friday morning, 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, according to the island’s police chief and search and rescue officials. The national search and rescue authority BASARNAS has not yet confirmed the deaths or nationalities.

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.

Fifteen tourists who’d climbed the mountain have successfully descended, he said in an update Friday afternoon local time. The bodies of the three victims currently remain on the mountain. Due to ongoing volcanic activity, rescue teams have been unable to retrieve the bodies of the three killed, Pasaribu said.

Two other climbers are still on Mount Dukono and are participating in the rescue operation, he added.

A huge column of smoke and ash can 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 meters (328 feet) 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.

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.

“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, and 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.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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