Philippines raises alert after volcano spews ash

MANILA, June 8 (Reuters) The Philippines raised the alert level on one of its most active volcanoes and warned residents on Thursday to stay away from the mountain after its crater belched ash clouds.

Bulusan volcano in central Philippines spewed ash nearly 2 km high, prompting authorities to raise the alert level to 2 from 1 ordered in March when ash first began flowing from its crater.

''We are seeing an increasing frequency of ash explosions,'' Renato Solidum, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, told Reuters.

Solidum warned residents in Sorsogon province not to venture within a 4-km zone of the 1,559-metre volcano because of fears of sudden explosions. ''We raised alert level 2 last night,'' he said as a measure of precaution.

At level 3 an explosion is considered possible, at level 4 it is seen as likely and at level 5, the highest alert, an eruption has occured with lava flows or ash columns reaching 6 km.

Bulusan, one of the six most active volcanoes in the Philippines, has had five ash eruptions since March.

Edwin Hamor, an official in Casiguran town in the central Philippines, told a radio station that volcanic ash had fallen on homes in the coastal town's 25 villages.

He said ash fall were also reported in nearby Juban town and officials said as many as 50,000 people would be evacuated in case of a major volcanic eruption.

Solidum said he had urged residents to wear masks and cover their face during ash fall due to potential health risks.

''After an ash fall, be sure to clear your house,'' he said.

Television showed images of people cleaning their yards, training water hoses to wash away grayish ash from plants and roofs of their homes.

''It's itchy and hurts the nose,'' said a woman.

Vulcanologist Ed Laguerta said they were keeping the danger zone.

''There's a possibility that these little explosions can become more frequent,'' he said. ''That's what we're watching out for, the changes in the character of the explosions.'' The Philippines, like neighbouring Indonesia, lies in an area of the Pacific basin that is vulnerable to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Around 3,000 villagers have been evacuated from the slopes of Mount Merapi in Indonesia as hot gas and lava flows from its crater but volcanic activity is decreasing.

Mount Pinatubo, on Luzon island in the northern Philippines, erupted in 1991 in the century's biggest blast, burying dozens of villages under tonnes of mud after lying dormant for 600 years.

More than 800 people died in the wake of Pinatubo's eruption, mostly from diseases in overcrowded evacuation camps.

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