Three hikers dead and 10 missing after Indonesia’s Mount Dukono volcano erupts

Three hikers have died and 10 are missing after an eruption at Mount Dukono on Indonesia’s eastern Halmahera island spewed an ash cloud about 10km (6 miles) into the air, local police have said.

“There are three dead, two foreigners and one resident of Ternate [island in east Indonesia],” Erlichson Pasaribu, the police chief of North Halmahera district, told Kompas TV.

Seven people had come down safely, Erlichson said, but 10 more were missing in an area declared off limits to visitors last month after scientists observed an increase in volcanic activity.

According to Indonesia’s national disaster management agency (BNPB), five climbers were also injured in the eruption.

“The joint teams from the regional disaster management agency and the national search and rescue agency continue to conduct sweeps and evacuations of climbers in the mountain area as volcanic activity increases,” a spokesperson, Abdul Muhari, said.

The rescue operation is taking place in rough terrain only partly accessible to vehicles. Photograph: Basarnas/EPA

Erlichson said the rescue operation was taking place in rough terrain only accessible to vehicles part of the way up the slope. “The rest of the way [the victims] need to be carried on a stretcher. And there is still rumbling from the eruption. It slows down our evacuation,” he said.

Lana Saria, the head of the government geology agency, said the early morning eruption was accompanied by a “booming sound” and a thick smoke column rising from the summit of Mount Dukono. “The direction of the ash distribution leans northward, so residential areas and Tobelo city need to be vigilant for … volcanic ash rain,” she said.

It could be dangerous for public health, Lana said, and risked disrupting transportation services.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity owing to its position on the Pacific “ring of fire” where tectonic plates collide.

The south-east Asian country has nearly 130 active volcanoes.

Mount Dukono is currently on level two of Indonesia’s four-tiered alert system. Since December, the national volcanology agency had recommended that tourists and climbers avoid coming within 4km (2.5 miles) of the volcano’s Malupang Warirang crater.

Erlichson said the hikers had ignored social media appeals and warning signs put up at the entrance to the trail to stay away, adding: “Local residents understand and don’t want to climb. Many [hikers] are foreign tourists who wish to create content.”