{"id":47325,"date":"2026-05-08T13:16:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T07:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/?p=47325"},"modified":"2026-05-08T13:16:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T07:31:34","slug":"20-hikers-missing-after-volcano-erupts-in-east-indonesia-rescue-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/20-hikers-missing-after-volcano-erupts-in-east-indonesia-rescue-official\/","title":{"rendered":"20 hikers missing after volcano erupts in east Indonesia: rescue official"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Twenty hikers, nine of them from Singapore, were reported missing Friday after Mount Dukono on Indonesia&#8217;s eastern Halmahera island erupted, spewing a smoke cloud some 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) into the air, a rescue official told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our team is on its way. It is not yet confirmed if there are injured people. Based on reports, there are about 20 people being searched for,&#8221; local rescue official Iwan Ramdani said by telephone.<br \/>\nHe confirmed the 20 were all hikers, even though the area had been closed to visitors since April 17 after scientists observed an increase in volcanic activity.<\/p>\n<p>Lana Saria, head of the government Geology Agency, said the early-morning eruption was accompanied by a &#8220;booming sound&#8221; and a thick smoke column rising some 10 km from the summit of Mount Dukono in the North Maluku province.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The direction of the ash distribution leans northward, so residential areas and Tobelo City need to be vigilant for&#8230; volcanic ash rain,&#8221; she said in a statement.<br \/>\nThe smoke could be dangerous for public health, Lana added, and risked disrupting transportation services.<\/p>\n<p>Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific &#8220;Ring of Fire&#8221; where tectonic plates collide.<\/p>\n<p>Mount Dukono is currently on the third-highest alert level of Indonesia&#8217;s four-tiered alert system.<br \/>\nSince December, the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) has recommended that tourists and climbers do not come within four kilometres of the volcano&#8217;s Malupang Warirang Crater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twenty hikers, nine of them from Singapore, were reported missing Friday after Mount Dukono on Indonesia&#8217;s eastern Halmahera island erupted, spewing a smoke cloud some 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) into the air, a rescue official told AFP. &#8220;Our team is on its way. It is not yet confirmed if there are injured people. Based on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47325"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47326,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47325\/revisions\/47326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nepalsamaj.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}