Thousands of villagers evacuated in the Philippines as volcano begins to erupt

The most active volcano in the Philippines has begun a mild eruption, prompting nearly 3,000 villagers in a permanent danger zone on its foothills to move away to safer shelters, officials said Wednesday.

Authorities raised the five-step alert around Mayon Volcano in the northeastern province of Albay to level 3 on Tuesday after detecting intermittent rockfalls, some as big as cars, from its peak crater in recent days along with deadly pyroclastic flows - a fast-moving avalanche of super-hot rock fragments, ash and gas.

Alert level 5 means a major, explosive eruption often with violent ejections of ash and debris and widespread ashfall, is underway.