Three hikers dead after volcano erupts in Indonesia

Video captured by Alex Djangu, a local tour guide, shows the moment Mount Dukono erupted

At least three hikers have been killed after a volcano erupted in Indonesia, local officials said.

Singapore nationals and an Indonesian citizen were among those killed when Mount Dukono, on the island of Halmahera in North Maluku province, erupted Friday morning, search and rescue officials on the island said.

Nine foreigners and 11 local hikers were climbing the volcano at the time of the eruption, North Halmahera Police Chief Erlichson Pasaribu told Indonesia’s Kompas TV.

Seventeen of the 20 climbers have been safely evacuated, Iwan Ramdani, head of the Ternate Search and Rescue Office, said at 6pm local time (midday BST).

The bodies of the three people who died still remain on the mountain, as search operations were suspended on Friday and will resume on Saturday.

Dramatic footage recorded near the crater by Indonesian mountain guide Alex Djangu shows a huge column of smoke and ash rising above the mountain.

Djangu was guiding two German tourists on Mount Dukono when he felt deep tremors before the eruption.

He told ITV News’ North American partner CNN it was “very scary”.

“I saw the small rocks and gravel sliding down because of the tremors, then I told my clients we have to run down,” he said.

Djangu and his group managed to get to safety, but he said many other hikers remained at the crater when the volcano erupted.

He added: “When we were about 100 metres away, I saw two groups of local tourists, one group of nine people already close to the rim and the other were videoing for content.”

Photos from Indonesia’s national search and rescue agency BASARNAS show rescue teams on the mountain, carrying at least one injured person on a stretcher through the forest.

Indonesia sits on the “Ring of Fire”, a band of seismic activity that circles the Pacific Ocean, stretching from Japan and Indonesia to California and South America, making it one of the most earthquake and volcano-prone regions on the planet.