MANILA:: Local inhabitants were evacuated as the Bulusan volcano in the Philippines' Sorsogon province erupted in ash and steam, blanketing adjacent towns and villages in ash, according to authorities.

According to news report, Mark Timbal, a spokeswoman for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), villagers are being evacuated from the 4-kilometer danger zone. The move is still in progress. "Everyone must escape the danger zone," he said late Monday to local media.

After Sunday's "phreatic eruption," the Philippine Coast Guard reported it assisted 58 households in Juban town in evacuating. A phreatic eruption happens when water underthe earth or surface is directly heated by hot rocks or fresh volcanic deposits, or indirectly heated by magma or magmatic gas.

Bulusan continued to release steam all day Monday, according to Renato Solidum of the government's volcanology institute. "This would reveal the volcano's active hydrothermal activity," he said.

Solidum claimed that in the last 24 hours, the institute has recorded 29 volcanic earthquakes, which he attributed to continuous hydrothermal activity. Bulusan, located 390 kilometres southeast of Manila, has erupted 15 times since 1885, making it the Philippines' fourth most active volcano after Mayon, Taal, and Kanlaon.

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