Indonesian rescuers recovered the body of a woman hiker near the crater of Mount Dukono on Saturday, one day after the volcano erupted while a group of 20 climbers was ascending it in defiance of a government closure order, killing her and leaving two Singaporean climbers missing, officials said.
The woman, identified by authorities only as Enjel, was found about 50 meters (165 feet) from the rim of the main crater, according to Iwan Ramdani, head of the local Search and Rescue Office. The bodies of the two Singaporeans remained unaccounted for, and rescue teams continued searching despite elevated volcanic activity.
“The rescue efforts went through a situation that required careful calculation and a well-planned evacuation strategy,” Ramdani said. “We took into account the potential escalation of volcanic activity as well as the safety of all personnel.”
Mount Dukono, on the remote island of Halmahera in eastern Indonesia, erupted early Friday, sending a thick column of ash about 10 kilometers (6 miles) into the sky. The 20 climbers who set out to ascend the 1,355-meter (4,445-foot) volcano had ignored safety restrictions. Within hours, 17 were evacuated, including seven Singaporean nationals and two Indonesians who later assisted rescuers by providing details about the climbing routes used before the eruption. Ten of those evacuated suffered minor burn injuries.
The search effort, which involved more than 100 personnel supported by drones, resumed early Saturday and focused on a 700-square-meter (7,500-square-foot) area where earlier clues had been found, Ramdani said. Rescuers were forced to retreat when new eruptions occurred.
“The main challenge in this search effort is that we are racing against ongoing eruptions,” Ramdani said in a video statement. “When the authorities declare conditions safe, we move closer to the crater area, but when an eruption occurs, we must immediately secure all search personnel from potential danger.”
Indonesia’s volcanology agency reported multiple eruptions from early Saturday through late morning, with ash columns rising as high as 3,000 meters (nearly 10,000 feet) above the crater, and lava bursts overnight. Mount Dukono has been at the second-highest alert level since 2008, and authorities enforced a four-kilometer (2.5-mile) exclusion zone around the crater in December 2024. Local officials formally closed all hiking routes to the mountain in April and strengthened the ban after Friday’s incident.
The National Disaster Management Agency warned that entering restricted zones could result in legal sanctions and urged tour operators and climbers to follow safety recommendations, noting that similar restrictions apply to dozens of other active volcanoes across Indonesia.
Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 270 million people, sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and is home to more than 120 active volcanoes.