Indonesia rescuers find hikers’ bodies after volcanic eruption

Indonesian rescuers retrieved on Sunday the remains of two Singaporean hikers killed in a volcanic eruption in a seismic no-go zone, capping a three-day search operation, officials said.

Mount Dukono on Halmahera island erupted on Friday, sending an ash tower 10 kilometres (six miles) above its peak and killing three climbers.

Seventeen other hikers, including seven Singaporeans, had been brought down safely.

Search and rescue teams, combing the area as the volcano continued rumbling and belching ash clouds, found the remains of the two dead Singaporeans on Sunday.

national disaster mitigation agency spokesman Abdul Muhari said in a statement.

Their bodies were found not far from where the remains of an Indonesian hiker had been found a day earlier, he added.

“The evacuation process of the last two bodies encountered obstacles due to the victims’ position, being buried under volcanic materials of significant thickness and depth,” Abdul said.

The search operation has now officially ended, he added.

Local search and rescue agency head Iwan Ramdani said the bodies found on Sunday were recovered during a “golden moment” between ongoing eruptions.

Speaking to reporters from a volcano monitoring station in Mamuya village, he said that the remains had been transported to a local hospital for identification, after which they would be handed over to the victims’ families.

Staff from the Singapore embassy in Jakarta were in Halmahera to coordinate with rescuers and facilitate the repatriation of the seven Singaporean survivors, who are expected to return home on Sunday, the city state’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Dukono, one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes, has been on level two of Indonesia’s four-tiered alert system since 2008.

Authorities have imposed a four-kilometre exclusion zone around the crater since December 2024, according to the head of the government Geology Agency, Lana Saria.

Local police chief Erlichson Pasaribu said on Friday that the hikers had ignored social media appeals and warning signs put up at the entrance of the trail to stay away.

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

The Southeast Asian country has nearly 130 active volcanoes.