Philippines volcano rumbles with fresh explosions

During the day,the summit is shrouded in white clouds of dust and ash,and dark orange lava becomes clearly visible at night. Residents of Legazpi city on the foothills of the cone-shaped mountain converge in a downtown park at night to watch the spectacle from a safe distance.

“There is the possibility that it can turn into the explosive phase of the eruption,” Solidum said. “Right now,we cannot say for sure,but the initial phases of 2000,2001 and 2006 eruptions are almost the same.”

Scientists raised the alert level on Mayon to two steps below a major eruption after ash explosions late on Monday. Albay provincial authorities quickly started moving thousands of families from an 8-km danger zone around the mountain.

More than 30,000 had been transported out of the critical area by Wednesday,or 65 per cent of the targeted population,said Cedric Daep,head of the provincial disaster management office.

“We have no more residents inside the danger zone. We are evacuating only those nearby,” he said. Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales had ordered a tight watch to prevent farmers from entering the zone,Daep said. The evacuation area includes three cities and five municipalities.

“It is such a big area. The objective is zero casualty,” he said.

Nearly 50,000 people live in the farming area. Mayon last erupted in 2006,when about 30,000 people were moved. Another eruption in 1993 killed 79 people. The first recorded eruption was in 1616 but the most destructive one came in 1814,killing more than 1,200 people and burying a town in mud.