More than 12,000 people from around the foot of Mayon Volcano had fled as the volcano's crater begins to glow red in a fit of near-explosion, government authorities said on Tuesday.
Mount Mayon, known for its near-perfect cone shape in the coconut-growing central Bicol region, has recorded a series of recent quakes and rockfalls, indicating a possible eruption within weeks.
"We are now raising the alert status of Mayon Volcano from alert level 2 to 3," Renato Solidum, head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), said on Tuesday.
Joey Salceda, governor of the central Albay province, said more than 12,000 people were forcibly evacuated.
"What the alert level 3 did was to fast-track the preparation to evacuate 12,000 families in the 6-8 km extended danger zone," he said.
The evacuees would be housed in temporary shelter for as long as three months, he said. More villagers, facing the southeastern crater rim, would be moved to safer areas if Mayon erupts.
Troops were enforcing the no-go area, preventing people from returning home.
The most destructive eruption was in February 1841, when lava flows buried a town and killed 1,200 people.--Source: Stuff.co