Manila (dpa) – More than 15,000 people have been displaced from their homes around the Philippines’ second-most active volcano, which has seen heightened activity since the start of the month, officials said Tuesday.
The affected residents came from 121 villages around Taal Volcano in Batangas province, 66 kilometres south of Manila, which has been intermittently spewing gas, steam and smoke since July 1.
At least 5,620 of the displaced residents have moved to evacuation centres, while 9,853 people were staying with relatives or friends, the national disaster agency said.
The Taal Volcano was at alert level three, which means that “magma extruding from the main crater could drive explosive eruption,” the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said in a bulletin.
The agency warned the public to stay away from high-risk areas, including villages, “due to the hazards of pyroclastic density currents and volcanic tsunami should strong eruptions occur.”
In the past 24 hours, 171 volcanic earthquakes, high levels of sulfur dioxide gas emissions and steam-rich plumes that rose 1.5 kilometres into the air were monitored at Taal, Phivolcs added.
Taal last erupted in January 2020, displacing more than 376,000 people. Thirty-nine people died due to illness while in evacuation centres and accidents caused by thick ash fall, according to the provincial government.
Taal has erupted 33 times since 1572.
It is a popular tourist destination for its picturesque crater lake and has the distinction of being the only known volcano in the world within a lake on an island.
