Ecuador volcano spews rock, villagers evacuated

QUITO, Ecuador, Aug 17 (Reuters) Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano spewed molten rock today and a local mayor reported one person dead and 60 missing as authorities evacuated hundreds of families from the threatened area.

Local television showed images of molten rock blasting from the volcano's crater and massive clouds of ash.

''We have recovered the body of one man,'' Juan Salazar, the mayor of nearby Penipe, told local television. ''We have 13 people hurt and they are hospitalized.'' He also said 60 people were missing but Tungurahua's governor Eduardo Toaza told Reuters that was ''speculation''.

''So far we have no reports of people dead, injured or missing,'' Toaza said.

Tungurahua, about 80 miles (130 km) south of capital city Quito, had shown a sharp increase in activity in July, causing hundreds of nearby villagers to flee their homes.

''This is a lot worse than the last time,'' Mauro Rodriguez, the Civil Defense chief for the Tungurahua province, told Reuters. ''We have so far evacuated around 300 families living near the volcano.'' Flows of molten rock, ash and gas blocked several roads as thousands of people crowded nearby churches and schools for refuge, said Javier Bermeo, who runs the shelters in the Tungurahua province. He said the exact number of evacuees, mostly from towns on the east side of the crater, is not yet known.

During the early hours today residents of the tourist town of Banos, with a population of around 17,000, left their homes, but the city mayor told Reuters most have already returned to the town on the south side of the volcano's crater.

''In recent hours the volcano has quieted down, but a new cycle could start at any moment,'' Pablo Samaniego, a scientist with Ecuador's national geophysics institute, told local television station.

REUTERS SSC PM2244