Watch: Philippines volcano erupts for nearly 6 minutes, spews ash 3 km high

A nearly six-minute explosive eruption at the Philippines’ Mount Mayon sent an ash column soaring 3,000 metres into the sky on Friday, prompting authorities to raise the volcano’s alert level and order evacuations near its crater.The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) raised the alert level from 2 to 3 on its five-level scale and urged residents within a six-kilometre radius of the crater to evacuate. The ash column gradually drifted southwest towards nearby population centres. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.In its bulletin, the institute said Mayon had entered a new phase of magmatic eruption, increasing the possibility of lava flows and hazardous pyroclastic density currents (PDCs) along the upper and middle slopes of the volcano in the coming days and weeks.Authorities warned residents of the dangers posed by pyroclastic flows, lava, rockfalls and other volcanic hazards.