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| About 50,000 residents have been told to evacuate from an area around the volcano [Reuters] |
Scientists in the Philippines have warned that one of the country's most active volcanoes could be on the brink of a major eruption.
The alert around the Mayon volcano has already triggered the evacuation of more than 20,000 residents from the immediate danger zone around the foothills of the mountain.
Thousands more are set to be moved in the coming hours.
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| Mount Mayon began spewing lava and clouds of ash on Monday [EPA] |
They are being housed in government evacuation centres, and officials have warned it is unlikely they will be able to return home before Christmas – the biggest annual holiday in the majority Catholic country.
Joey Salceda, the governor of the Albay province where the volcano is located, said authorities were aiming for "zero casualties" should there be an eruption.
He said the province had declared a "state of imminent disaster" in order for special disaster funds to be released to help pay for the evacuation.
"After the series of ash puffs and ash explosions of 1,000 metres, we cannot rule out a major explosion," Cedric Daep, the head of the disaster relief operations in the region, told reporters.
He said the authorities aimed to evacuate nearly 50,000 people from villages within eight kilometres of the volcano by Thursday.
Eruption warning
State volcanologists raised the alert level on the cone-shaped volcano to two steps below a major eruption late on Monday.
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| Officials have declared a state of "imminent disaster" around the volcano [Reuters] |
They have said that activity could get worse in the coming days, but could also yet calm down without a major eruption.
"It's 10 days before Christmas. Most likely people will be in evacuation centres, and if Mayon's activity won't ease down we will not allow them to return to their homes,'' provincial emergency management official Jukes Nunez said.
"It's difficult and sad, especially for children."
Mayon is the most active of 22 volcanoes in the Philippines, having erupted more than 50 times in the last four centuries.
The last time the volcano erupted was in 2006.
Mayon's most destructive eruption came in 1841 when lava flows buried the town of Cagsawa and killed more than 1,200 people.
The country lies on the volatile "Ring of Fire", a belt of volcanoes circling the Pacific Ocean that is also prone to earthquakes.
In June 1991 the Philippines was the scene of the world's most violent eruption of the last century when 800 people were killed around Mount Pinatubo north of Manila.
The eruption spewed out ash that spread around the globe and caused volcanic mudflows that buried whole towns.
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