Three hikers — two Singaporeans and one Indonesian — have died after Mount Dukono, an active volcano on Halmahera island in eastern Indonesia, erupted on Friday morning, sending a column of ash and smoke some 10 kilometres into the sky. A group of 20 hikers, nine of them from Singapore, were on the mountain's slopes when the eruption occurred at 7:41 local time. Fifteen members of the group were evacuated safely, some with minor injuries, while the bodies of the three victims remained on the mountain as of Friday evening, with retrieval operations suspended due to continuing volcanic activity, difficult terrain, and strong blasts from the crater.

The victims have been identified as Timothy Heng Wen Qiang, 30, and Shahin Muhrez bin Abdul Hamid, 27, both Singaporean men, and a young Indonesian woman known only as Angel. The tour guide and a porter accompanying the group were taken to a police station and could face criminal charges for leading hikers into a prohibited zone. North Halmahera police chief Erlichson Pasaribu said the group had disregarded both social media warnings and physical signs posted at the trail entrance.