Three hikers — two Singaporeans and an Indonesian — died yesterday in an eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Dukono volcano where they found themselves in a no-go zone, officials said.
The eruption on Halmahera island sent an ash cloud about 10km into the air, with no towns or villages near enough to face any immediate threat.
Twenty hikers were on the slopes when disaster struck, North Halmahera Police Chief Erlichson Pasaribu told reporters at a volcano monitoring station in Mamuya village.
Photo: AFP / Indonesia’s Geological Agency
He said nine were from Singapore and the rest Indonesian.
“To date, 15 climbers have safely descended,” Erlichson said several hours after the early-morning eruption.
He did not comment on the whereabouts of the last two.
Tour guide Alex Djangu, who was on the slopes when the eruption happened, said he arrived with a tour group on Thursday and found the volcano acting “a bit strange.”
“This was the first time I’d seen it so quiet. I told the guests that a major eruption is going to happen because the volcano is accumulating pressure at the bottom of the crater, and my prediction turned out to be correct,” he said by telephone from his hotel not far from the volcano.
When the eruption happened there were two groups of tourists, about 15 in total, at the crater rim, the 48-year-old said.
“I panicked, I thought they had all died, but it turned out that in the end only three died,” he said.
He himself was with two German hikers who “survived because we were in the safe radius,” said the guide, describing this as the biggest eruption of Mount Dukono he had ever witnessed.
“Previously, when there was an eruption, there would be a single blast and then it was over. This time, the eruption started at 7:42 and by the time we came down the intensity was still the same, rocks were still coming out of the crater,” he said.
By lunchtime yesterday, Erlichson said the bodies of the three deceased were still on the mountain.
“Due to ongoing eruptions, the situation is still considered unsafe for evacuation. So, the joint team is still waiting for the right time to begin the search,” he said.
Some of the hikers had suffered minor injuries and were taken to hospital for treatment.
The group’s guide and a porter were taken to a police station and could face criminal charges for taking hikers into a prohibited area, Erlichson added.
The Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation has warned tourists and climbers not to go within 4km of the volcano’s Malupang Warirang Crater after an uptick in seismic activity.
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