News Digest

Glowing red: Thousands flee as lava forms in Philippine’s deadliest volcano

Thousands of people are being evacuated from the area around an active volcano in the northern Philippines after the country’s seismology agency issued an alert saying a hazardous eruption could happen “within weeks.” The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the alert level to “critical” for Mount Mayon in eastern Albay province, on the northern island of Luzon, Monday after recording an escalation of unrest over a 15-hour period, including 39 incidents of hot rocks falling in the summit area and 32 low-frequency volcanic earthquakes. The institute said molten lava and hot volcanic gases have made a glow in the 2,460-metre volcano’s crater observable.

Mayon is exhibiting relatively high unrest and that magma is at the crater and that hazardous eruption is possible within weeks.

Philippine Institute of Volvanology and Seismology

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents within a 6- to 8-kilometre radius of the volcano’s crater. Disaster councils of the province and the region met to map out steps to avert casualties, said Jukes Nunez, a disaster management officer in the province. The volcano institute said that it was important to keep people out of a “permanent danger zone” extending 6 kilometres from the mountain’s crater and 7 kilometres on the southeastern flank. However, officials say many people venture into the area to farm or live when there is a lull in activity. Mount Mayon, located about 340 kilometres southeast of Manila, has erupted more than 40 times over the past 400 years. On May 7, 2013, the volcano spewed ash, killing five climbers, including three Germans who ventured near the summit despite the permanent danger zone.