Taal volcano: ‘Explosive eruption’ warning issued as lava gushes from volcano in Philippines

More than 8,000 evacuated and flights suspended at Manila international airport, as officials warn of possible ‘volcanic tsunami’

Authorities say a volcano in the Philippines could suffer a “hazardous explosive eruption” within hours or days, after a sudden gush of molten lava forced a major evacuation.

Clouds of ash spewing from Taal volcano – the country’s second-most active – forced a shutdown of all flights at Manila’s international airport and the closure of offices and schools.

The volcano is located on Lake Taal less than 50 miles south of the capital, and the government’s monitoring agency Phivolcs has raised its alert level to 4 out of a possible 5. The top level would mean a major eruption was under way.

Phivolcs said there was a threat to popular tourist destinations around the edge of the lake, as the agency’s head Renato Solidum described Taal as a “very small, but dangerous volcano”.

About 8,000 villagers have been evacuated so far to some 38 centres in the worst-affected provinces of Batangas and Cavite, but officials said they expected that number to soar to the hundreds of thousands as operations to urge people away from the volcano continued.

Some were refuses to leave, while others were unable to get out of villages covered in ash due to poor visibility and a breakdown in transport links.

“We have a problem, our people are panicking due to the volcano because they want to save their livelihood, their pigs and herds of cows,” Mayor Wilson Maralit of Balete town told DZMM radio. “We’re trying to stop them from returning and warning that the volcano can explode again anytime and hit them.”

Maralit, whose town lies along the coastline of Taal Lake surrounding the erupting volcano, appealed for troops and additional police to be deployed to stop distraught residents from sneaking back to their high-risk coastal villages.

After months of restiveness that began last year, Taal suddenly rumbled back to life Sunday, blasting steam, ash and pebbles up to 6 to 9 miles into the sky, according to Phivolcs, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

Ma. Antonio Bornas, the agency’s chief volcanologist, said lava spurted out in fountains out of the volcano early Monday while its ash and steam ejections eased. It’s hard to tell when the eruption would stop, she said, citing Taal’s similar restiveness in the 1970s that lasted for about four months.

Authorities said there is also a risk of a possible “volcanic tsunami”, caused by debris from an eruption falling into the lake and shifting a large volume of water.

The volcanology institute reminded the public that the small island where the volcano lies is a “permanent danger zone,” although fishing villages have existed there for years. It called for the “total evacuation” of people on the volcano island and coastal areas “at high risk to pyroclastic density currents and volcanic tsunami within a 9-mile radius from Taal.”

Some flights were resumed later on Monday at Manila’s main airport, but the agency recommended planes avoid flying at a certain distance from the volcano “as airborne ash and ballistic fragments from the eruption column pose hazards to aircraft”.

One of the world’s smallest volcanoes, Taal is among two dozen active volcanoes in the Philippines, which lies along the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a seismically active region that is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

About 20 typhoons and other major storms each year also lash the Philippines, which lies between the Pacific and the South China Sea, making it one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries.

Additional reporting by agencies