Fountains of lava, similar to fireworks, are thrown up to a height of 700 meters over Mayon, the most active volcano in the Philippines.

More than 40,000 people have already evacuated after the mountain began to shed ash and smoke, and scientists warned of the danger of a possible powerful eruption, which is why the authorities urged the population to evacuate.

Meanwhile, it threw a pile of ash at a height of 5 km, while clouds of fine particles brought darkness in the day in some areas, volcanologists and local authorities said.

"Children did not understand what was going on, and then it suddenly became dark and no one could see anything," Dani Garcia, a spokesman for the province of Albei, told AFP reporter.

The top of the mountain is surrounded by a thick column of steam and hot rocks creating a fantastic scenery.

"The explosion is like cauliflower or octopus," says Ed Laguert, living near Mayon, a volcanologist at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

Mayon, an almost ideal cone, is located about 330 kilometers southeast of Manila, and is considered to be the most dangerous of the 22 active volcanoes of the Philippines.