The Philippines' most active volcano was gently spewing lava down its slopes Monday, alerting tens of thousands of people they may have to quickly flee a violent and life-threatening explosion.
More than 12,600 people have left the mostly poor farming communities within a 6-kilometer radius of Mayon Volcano's crater in mandatory evacuations since volcanic activity increased last week. But thousands more remain within the permanent danger zone below Mayon, an area long declared off-limits to people but where generations have lived and farmed because they have nowhere else to go.
From a distance, Associated Press journalists watched lava flow down the volcano's southeastern gullies for hours Sunday night. People hurriedly stepped out of restaurants and bars in a seaside district of Legazpi, the capital of northeastern Albay province about 14 kilometers from Mayon, many of them snapping pictures of the volcano that's a popular tourist draw known for its picturesque conical shape.
With lava flowing down from the volcano gently, Bacolcol said the alert level would stay at three but it could be moved up higher if the eruption turns perilous. Some locals have grown wealthy from the tourism industry that has sprung from Mayon or the gravel, sand and ornamental rocks and boulders found around the volcano in abundance.
They gave deworming medicine and vitamins and punched identifying tags onto the ears of several cows and buffaloes for better monitoring.
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