Philippines volcano warning

Military trucks were dispatched on Tuesday to help move residents out of the danger zone of the Mayon volcano in Albay province, around 330 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Manila.

Those living within an eight-kilometer radius of the volcano are to be forcibly evacuated, regional civil defense director Bernardo Alejandro said.

Authorities are expected to move more than 50,000 people out of the danger zone within three days, he added.

"So far, there has been no reported opposition to the evacuation plan," said Major General Ricardo Visaya, a regional military commander.

Alert level 'critical'

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology raised the alert level for Mount Mayon to "critical" late Monday. The move follows an escalation of unrest on the volcano over a 15-hour period, including 39 incidents of hot rocks falling from the summit area and 32 instances of low-frequency volcanic earthquakes.

Raising the alert level "means that Mayon is exhibiting relatively high unrest and that magma is at the crate and that hazardous eruption is possible within weeks," the institute said in a bulletin.

The institute recommended keeping people out of the "permanent danger zone," which extends 6 kilometers around the volcano's crater and seven kilometers on the southeastern flank. The area was at risk of "rockfalls, landslides and sudden explosions or dome collapse that may generate hazardous volcanic flows," it added.

"We'll have no problems with 99 percent [of residents] who will evacuate but there are some who will be hard headed," regional civil defense director Alejandro said, in reference to a similar 2009 evacuation during which some farmers refused to move.

History of deadly eruptions

Mayon has erupted around 50 times since 1616. The most violent incident occurred in 1814, when more than 1,200 people were killed and a town was buried in volcanic mud. An eruption in 1993 killed 79 people.

A sudden explosion from the volcano's crater in May 2013 killed four foreign tourists, including three Germans, and a Filipino guide.

The region around the mountain is a popular spot for tourists and volcano watchers, who come to see