Residents evacuated near Mayon volcano
MANILA: The Philippines ordered the evacuation of people from two more municipalities near a restive volcano yesterday, as the chief vulcanologist warned of a possible hazardous eruption “within weeks or even within days”.
More than 12 000 residents have already fled to evacuation centres after the 2.4m Mayon volcano in central Albay province began spewing ash on Saturday and unleashed burning mud and rocks on Sunday.
“There is an ongoing forced evacuation from the municipalities of Daraga and Legazpi because of the lava flow,” said Romina Marasigan, spokesperson for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
“The lava flow has reached some areas around 3km away from the volcano.”
Mayon, a tourist attraction because of its near-perfect cone shape, showed a bright crater glow on Sunday, signifying lava had started to flow.
Manila’s airport authorities said Cebu Pacific had cancelled flights to nearby Legazpi City for a second day yesterday, citing bad weather.
Philippine Airlines said it had not cancelled any flights to and from Legazpi, but there were some delays.
Mayon’s most destructive eruption was in February 1841, when lava buried a town and killed 1 200 people. It last erupted in 2014, spewing lava and forcing thousands of people to evacuate.
The Philippines raised the volcano alert to level 3, which indicates increased volcanic activity toward a hazardous eruption, on Sunday.
Level 5 indicates an eruption is in progress.
People have been advised to stay away from a 6km radius permanent danger zone and a 7km expanded danger zone on the volcano’s southern flank. – Reuters