Mayon spews lava

MANILA – Mount Mayon in Albay province spewed a fountain of lava on Maundy Thursday, the Office of Civil Defense said. 

The “short-lived lava fountaining” started at 10:32 a.m., the agency said. 

“Manatili pong naka-alerto, laging mag-ingat, at sumunod sa paalala at babala ng mga awtoridad,” it said on Facebook. 

Mayon, about 330 kilometers southeast of the capital Manila, is considered one of the most volatile of the country's 24 active volcanoes.

It remained under Alert Level 3 in a 5-step warning system, which meant that “magma is close or at the crater” and “eruption is possible within weeks”, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. 

Entry into the 6-kilometer permanent danger zone around Mayon remained prohibited, Phivolcs said. 

Earthquakes and volcanic activity are common in the Philippines due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates collide.

In 2018, Mayon displaced tens of thousands of people after spewing millions of tonnes of ash, rocks and lava.

The country's most powerful eruption in recent decades was Mount Pinatubo in 1991 that killed more than 800 people. That disaster produced an ash cloud that travelled thousands of kilometers.

Mayon lies in a region also hit by many of the roughly 20 typhoons or tropical storms to strike the Philippines each year. The frequent weather disasters often kill people, ravage farms, and help to keep millions poor.

— With a report from Agence France-Presse