A volcanic eruption killed three people and a rescue operation began Friday morning to bring more than a dozen climbers stranded near the crater of Indonesia’s Mount Dukono to safety, officials said.
Singaporean and Indonesian nationals were among those killed in the volcanic eruption on Halmahera Island in North Maluku province, the island’s police chief and search and rescue official said. The country’s search and rescue authority, Basarnas, has not yet confirmed the deaths or their nationalities.
North Halmahera police chief Errikson Pasarib told Indonesia’s Kompas TV that nine foreigners and 11 local hikers were climbing Mount Dukono at the time of the eruption.
In an update on Friday afternoon local time, he said 15 tourists who had climbed the mountain had safely descended. The bodies of the three victims still remain on the mountain. Pasarib said rescue teams have not been able to recover the bodies of the three people who died because of continued volcanic activity.
Two other climbers are still on Mount Dukono and are taking part in rescue operations, he added.
Dramatic video taken from near the crater by Indonesian mountain guide Alex Jung shows a huge column of smoke and ash rising over the mountain.
Jung told CNN that he was guiding two German tourists on Mount Dukono when he felt a deep tremor before the eruption. “It was very scary,” he told CNN.
“I saw small rocks and gravel sliding down because of the shaking and told my client he had to run down,” he said.
Jung said he and his group were able to safely evacuate, but many hikers remained in the crater at the time of the eruption.
“When we were about 100 meters (328 feet) away, we saw two groups of local tourists. One group of nine people was already near the rim, and the other group was taking video for their content.”
“I hope they’re still alive,” he can be heard saying in the video.
He said the volcano was extremely active and continued to erupt at “supersonic” speeds until Friday afternoon.
Mount Dukono is one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes, and authorities say it has become more active since late March.
“When Dukono doesn’t erupt for several days, people need to be careful because it can be under very high pressure. And that’s what happened today,” Jung said in the video.
Photos from Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency, Basarnas, showed rescue teams climbing the mountain and carrying at least one injured person on a stretcher through the forest on Friday.
Indonesia is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a belt around the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes and volcanic activity frequently occur. It is one of the most seismically active regions on Earth, stretching from Japan and Indonesia on one side of the Pacific Ocean to California and South America on the other.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
