The Kanlaon volcano in the Philippines is erupting, shooting ash 2.5 miles into the sky and prompting many evacuations.

Manila – A volcano erupted briefly in the central Philippines on Monday, sending huge plumes of ash into the sky as the government ordered the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from surrounding areas. Rising over 8,000 meters above sea level on the central island of Negros, Kanlaon is one of the 24. active volcanoes in the Philippines.

The nearly four-minute eruption Monday afternoon sent a column of ash 2.5 miles above the crater and hot ash, gases and cracked volcanic rock about 2 miles down the southeast side of the mountain, officials told a news conference. The nation’s alert level for the volcano has been raised, indicating more eruptions may follow.

No casualties have been reported since Monday’s eruption, but volcanic ash has fallen over a wide area, including the province of Antique, which is about 120 kilometers across the sea to the west of the volcano. The ash cloud obscured visibility and posed a potential health hazard, officials warned.

“Being hit by these pyroclastic density currents is like being hit by a speeding car,” said Maria Antonia Bornas, a volcanologist at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

“If the ash gets into your lungs it can cause asphyxiation,” he said, urging local officials to evacuate 15 villages in an area of ​​six kilometers from the crater.

He said ash from the eruption fell on several nearby towns and cities near the volcano and warned heavy rains could release new volcanic sediment from the latest eruption, which could bury communities underneath.

About half a dozen domestic flights and one to Singapore were canceled on Monday and Tuesday because of the explosion, according to the Philippine Civil Aviation Authority.

“Evacuations are still ongoing” in four villages north of the town of La Castellana, on the southwest slope of the volcano, municipal police officer Staff Sergeant Ronel Arevalo told AFP, adding that he did not have the number of residents to be evacuated. The Philippine government said in a statement posted on its official information agency website that “an emergency evacuation operation is underway, affecting approximately 87,000 residents” in the area around the volcano.

La Castellana resident Dianne Paula Abendan, 24, used her cell phone to capture a video clip of a large cauliflower-shaped gray plume of smoke over the crater.

“For the past few days, we have seen black smoke coming out of this volcano. We expected it to erupt anytime this week,” he told AFP by phone.

Abendan said people rushed home to wait for evacuation orders, but added that the eruption appeared to have occurred a little over an hour later.

Authorities say flights to and from Bacolod-Silay airport, near the volcano, remain normal, but carriers are warned not to fly below 10,000 meters near the volcano.

“Aircraft operators are advised to avoid flying near the volcano due to possible dangers of steam-driven explosions or phreatic explosions and previous magmatic activity,” said an official report from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.

In September, hundreds of nearby residents were evacuated after the volcano released thousands of tons of dangerous gases in a single day. The seismology office said Kanlaon has erupted more than 40 times since 1866.

In 1996, three climbers were killed by volcanic ash.