PHILIPPINES MAYON VOLCANO SPEWS LAVA, 8000 MOVED TO SHELTER

Regularly battered by typhoons at this time of year, Lava are cascading down the Philippines’ most active volcano today as authorities rushed to evacuate thousands ahead of a possible deadly eruption. 

The 2,640-metre (8,070-foot) Mayon, located about 330 kilometers southwest of Manila, is a draw for local and foreign tourists but an enduring danger for anyone getting too close. 

According to AFP, at least 8,000 of the target 50,000 people had been moved to temporary shelter. 
Mostly women, children and the elderly carrying bags of clothes were hauled out of farming villages near Mayon volcano’s slopes on board army trucks and minibuses. 

Soldiers went from house to house asking residents to evacuate, after authorities on Monday raised the third highest alert in a five-step scale, meaning a full-scale eruption is possible “within weeks”.  However, the evacuation operation was sapping precious disaster-relief funds and manpower in the Albay province.

The volcano’s world-renowned perfect cone appeared to have been deformed, swollen with lava that had risen from the Earth’s core.   
Before dawn yesterday, Mayon’s crater glowed red as molten rocks flowed as far as halfway down its slopes.
The deadliest and most powerful of the roughly 20 typhoons that batter the Philippines every year happen towards the end of the year, bringing floods, landslides and storm surges to eastern provinces such as Albay that face the Pacific Ocean.

Source: AFP.