On Indonesia’s remote Halmahera Island, search and rescue teams have recovered the bodies of all three hikers who were killed by an unexpected volcanic eruption at Mount Dukono, ending a days-long high-risk recovery operation that unfolded amid continuing volcanic activity. According to Indonesian disaster management officials, the remains of two Singaporean hikers, aged 27 and 30, were located on Sunday, just two days after the group was trapped by the volcano’s sudden outburst. Their bodies were found only meters away from where an Indonesian female hiker, the first victim recovered, was pulled from volcanic debris on Saturday. All three members of the ill-fated group were within 50 meters of the volcano’s main crater rim when the eruption struck.
Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, explained that thick, compact layers of volcanic ash and debris had buried the two Singaporean hikers, creating major obstacles for rescuers that slowed recovery efforts dramatically. “The bodies were buried under deep, densely packed volcanic material that is difficult to dig through,” Muhari said in a press statement. “Rescue teams must proceed cautiously to ensure safety.”
The three deaths came after the group of 20 hikers deliberately ignored official safety restrictions to climb the 1,355-meter active volcano, located in Indonesia’s North Maluku province. Mount Dukono erupted in the early hours of Friday, blasting a dense column of ash 10 kilometers into the sky and leaving the unauthorized group stranded. Seventeen members of the party were evacuated safely within hours of the eruption, including seven other Singaporean nationals. Ten of the evacuated hikers sustained minor burn injuries, while two were cleared to assist rescuers, providing critical information that guided the search for the missing.
The recovery mission was carried out by nearly 100 personnel, who faced two major ongoing threats: the island’s extremely rugged, remote terrain and repeated volcanic activity that continued to disrupt operations days after the initial eruption. Iwan Ramdani, head of the local search and rescue department, confirmed that volcanology experts monitored conditions around the clock throughout Sunday’s recovery work, as the volcano continued to spew ash, superheated rock fragments and glowing molten material. “The search operation was repeatedly disrupted by Mount Dukono’s continued volcanic activity,” Ramdani noted. “Teams must be extremely careful during the evacuation process.”
After all three remains were recovered, they were first moved to a local emergency response outpost before being transferred to Tobelo Regional Hospital for official identification and processing by authorities. With all victims accounted for, the National Disaster Management Agency announced the official closure of the search and rescue operation.
In the wake of the fatal incident, authorities have issued a renewed warning to local communities, tourists and tour operators to comply with all volcanic safety regulations and steer clear of officially restricted hazard zones. Indonesia’s volcanology agency has long maintained a total ban on all human activity within a 4-kilometer radius of Mount Dukono’s crater, a restriction put in place to protect visitors from the volcano’s frequent active periods.
Mount Dukono is one of more than 120 active volcanoes across Indonesia, a Southeast Asian nation that sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire” — a geologically active zone of fault lines and volcanic formations that circles the entire Pacific Basin, leaving the country extremely prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.