Some 87,000 people have been evacuated after Mount Kanlaon erupted in the Philippines, spewing out a towering plume of ash and superhot streams of gas and debris down its western slopes.
There are fears that it could erupt again, so authorities have scrambled in an attempt to keep as many people as safe as possible.
Visibility across the central regions is poor as a result of the ash cloud. At least six domestic flights and one Singapore-bound flight were cancelled and two local flights have been diverted.
Although no fatalities have as yet been reported, Philippine chief volcanologist Teresito Bacolcol said the area poses a huge risk to residents and the evacuations are essential.
Volcanic ash fell on a wide area, including Antique province, more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) across seawaters west of the volcano, obscuring visibility and posing health risks, Bacolcol and other officials said by telephone, according to AP.
Nearly 47,000 people have been evacuated in the town of La Castellana alone, said Mayor Rhumyla Mangilimutan.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, 67, has assured that his administration is primed to aid the multitude of displaced villagers, mentioning that his social welfare secretary took an early flight Tuesday to the stricken area.
“We are ready to support the families who have been evacuated outside the six-kilometer danger zone,” he told reporters.
As toxic volcanic gases pose a contamination hazard, government scientists are scrutinising air quality which may necessitate further evacuations post-Monday’s eruption.
Disaster teams are urgently setting up more evacuation centres and scrounging for face masks, food supplies, and hygiene kits.
Schools have been closed and a nighttime curfew has been imposed in the most vulnerable districts.
The Philippines’ Institute of Volcanology and Seismology reported that Monday afternoon’s nearly four-minute eruption of Kanlaon spawned a lethal pyroclastic density current – a molten mixture of gas, ash, debris and boulders – potent enough to destroy anything in its wake.
“It’s a one-time but major eruption,” Bacolcol informed the press, adding that volcanologists were determining whether the eruption was due to old volcanic debris and rocks clogged in and near the summit crater or caused by rising magma from underneath. Few volcanic earthquakes were detected prior to Monday’s explosion, he added.
The alert level around Kanlaon was raised on Monday to the third-highest of a five-step warning system, indicating a “magmatic eruption” may have begun and could lead to further explosive eruptions.
The 2,435-metre volcano, listed as one of the country’s 24 most-active volcanoes, last erupted in June, forcing hundreds of villagers into emergency shelters.
The Philippines, located in the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a region prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, is also hit by about 20 typhoons and storms annually, making it one of the countries most susceptible to natural disasters.