Lava seen at the Philippines’ Mayon volcano as thousands evacuate

At least 12,800 people have been evacuated from the area around the mountain as volcanic activity intensifies.

Mayon, the Philippines’ most active volcano, has begun spewing lava down its slopes as volcanic activity increases in an area that is home to tens of thousands of mostly poor farmers.

Lava began appearing on the slopes of Mayon late Sunday and Teresito Bacolcol, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said authorities were on alert for further developments.

“What we are seeing now is an effusive eruption,” Bacolcol told The Associated Press news agency. “We are looking at this on a day-to-day basis.”

At least 12,800 people living within a 6 km (3.7 mi) radius of the Mayón volcano have been evacuated since last week. Bacolcol said there is a chance the high-risk zone could expand if the eruption turns violent.

The area below Mayon, about 330 kilometers (205 miles) southeast of the capital Manila, is designated as a permanent danger zone, but many thousands of people continue to live there because they have nowhere to go.

Volcanologists say the lava is another sign of increased activity, noting that there have also been about 260 rockfall events in the past 24 hours, up from 177 in the previous 24 hours. There were also more tremors: 21 in the last 24 hours compared to the previous two.

Sulfur dioxide emissions had also tripled on Saturday, according to state volcanologists.

“There is a concomitant health risk of being close to the eruption due to inhalation of sulfur dioxide gas or particles from the ash,” Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said at a news conference on Sunday.

He alert level Because the volcano remains at three in the Philippine five-pass system, which means that there is a tendency towards a dangerous eruption in weeks or days.

Albay province, where the conical Mayon is a popular tourist attraction, was placed in a state of emergency on Friday to allow faster distribution of disaster relief funds in the event of a major eruption.

Mayon is one of the 24 active volcanoes in the Philippines and the last erupted violently in 2018displacing tens of thousands of villagers.

The archipelago is located on the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire”, the edge of seismic faults where most of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. It also sees frequent typhoons and tropical storms with a typhoon forecast to hit the area later this week.

The country’s most powerful eruption in recent decades was Mount Pinatubo in 1991, which killed more than 800 people and produced an ash cloud that traveled thousands of kilometers.