The most active volcano in the Philippines exploded violently today after more than a week of rumbling.
Scientists raised the alert level for Mount Mayon to four on the scale of five, indicating that a major eruption is possible within hours or days. The evacuation zone was expanded to five miles around the 8,070ft mountain. Smoke darkened the skies above surrounding villages and cascades of lava, molten rocks and steam tumbled down the volcano’s slopes.
“If the eruption is vertical it’s possible pyroclastic flows or pyroclastic density currents may cascade down in all directions,” Renato Solidum, the country’s chief vulcanologist, said. Pyroclastic flows are torrents of superheated gas and rock that can crush and incinerate everything in their path.
About 40,000 people have been evacuated from villages on Mayon’s slopes since it began ejecting ash, lava and gas nine days ago. Mr Solidum said: “We strongly advise all people, both residents and tourists, to avoid the danger zone, and airlines to avoid flying near the volcano summit.”
Almost 50,000 people live within five miles of the crater, which is known to have erupted at least 50 times and has killed thousands of people.
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The governor of Albay province has shut local schools. “In some areas . . . it’s already zero visibility, especially along the foot of the volcano,” said Al Francis Bichara. “[People] have to stay home and if they intend to get out of their houses they have to wear masks.”
Mount Mayon, whose name means “beautiful”, is a perfect tapering cone which rises out of the plain of southern Luzon, 330km southeast of the capital, Manila. It has erupted dozens of times in the past 400 years, most destructively in 1814, when 1,200 people were killed and an entire town was buried under mud and rock.
The Philippines has 22 active volcanoes. In 1991 the eruption of Mount Pinatubo covered the Clark Air Base in ash and contributed to the withdrawal of US troops from the country.
Another big eruption is taking place 1,800 miles away in Papua New Guinea, where smoke and ash from a volcano on Kadovar island has forced evacuations and disrupted air traffic.