Glowing red lava causes more to flee from Philippine volcano

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Glowing-red lava spurted in a fountain and flowed down the Philippines’ most active volcano on Tuesday in a stunning display of its fury that has sent more than 34,000 villagers fleeing to safety and prompted police to set up checkpoints to stop tourists from getting too close.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the lava flowed as much as 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the often cloud-shrouded crater of Mount Mayon, while ash fell on several villages in northeastern Albay province.

Officials strongly advised people not to venture into a danger zone about 6 to 7 kilometers (3.7 to 4.3 miles) around Mayon, including residents who want to check their homes, farms and animals, and tourists seeking a closer view.

“They say it’s beauty juxtaposed with danger,” Office of Civil Defense regional director Claudio Yucot said.

At least 34,038 people have been displaced by Mayon’s eruption since the weekend from two cities and six towns, many of whom took shelter in schools turned into evacuation centers, Jukes Nunez, an Albay provincial disaster response officer, said by telephone. Others took refuge in the homes of relatives.

Albay officials declared a state of calamity in the province of more than a million people to allow more rapid disbursement of disaster funds, Nunez said.

“We have witnessed lava fountaining yesterday, that’s why we have additional families who evacuated due to the threat,” said Romina Marasigan, spokeswoman of the government’s main disaster-response agency.

Renato Solidum, who heads the volcanology institute, said the flows cascading down the volcano were not generated by an explosion from the crater with superheated lava, molten rocks and steam, but were caused by lava fragments breaking off from the lava flow and crashing on the lower slopes.

Scientists have not yet detected enough volcanic earthquakes of the type that would prompt them to raise the alert level to four on a scale of five, which would indicate an explosive eruption may be imminent.