The erupting Taal volcano in the Philippines remains a life-threatening danger despite emitting weaker ash and steam explosions and fewer tremors, officials have said.
Despite the “seeming lull”, its continuing volcanic quakes, the drying of its crater lake and other signs indicate magma is moving beneath the volcano, said Antonia Bornas, a Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology official.
“When there is an explosion, that will be life-threatening, especially if people get very near, like on volcano island,” Renato Solidum, who heads the institute, told the Associated Press.
Follow the latest updates:
Some of the thousands of residents under orders to evacuate from a town near the Taal volcano have been allowed to briefly visit their homes to rescue their animals and recover some possessions.
Daniel Reyes, mayor of the Agoncillo town inside the danger zone of the volcano, said he allowed around 3,000 residents to check their properties and retrieve animals, clothes and other possessions.
"If I would not let them rescue their animals, their animals would die and together with them their sources of livelihood," Mr Reyes told Reuters.
Taal has shown signs of calm since Thursday and Mr Reyes said he took advantage of this window to allow residents to collect their belongings.
"Based on what I saw outside, I thought I would be doing them more good if I let them return to their homes," he said. "The help they are getting now is only momentarily".
Farmers have found their fields covered in volcanic ash after the Taal volcano began erupting on Sunday:
Pineapple farm covered in volcanic ash in Philippines
Farmer Jack Imperial says eruption's impacts go beyond anything he has ever seenAmong those displaced were about 5,000 people who live on the island where the Taal volcano lies, which was a popular tourist destination renowned for its stunning view of the volcano's crater lake and lush hills teeming with trees and birds.
Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana has recommended that villagers should not be allowed back.
While many houses and farms have been damaged by volcanic ash, no deaths or major injuries directly caused by the eruption have been reported.
Authorities have reported one traffic death on an ash-slickened road and an evacuee dying of a heart attack.
About 125,000 people fled their homes just in hardest-hit Batangas province, more than 65km south of the capital, Manila.
At least 373 evacuation sites were crammed with displaced villagers and needed more ash masks, portable toilets, bottled water and sleeping mats, according to a provincial disaster-response office.
The government's main disaster agency reported a little more than 77,000 people were displaced in Batangas and the nearby provinces of Cavite and Laguna. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.
In a firsthand account from a holidaymaker trapped by the Taal volcano, John Dan Ramos describes being at a wedding when "everyone panicked" as the air became "thick with ash":
When the Taal volcano erupted, I was at a wedding — then we were trapped
The roads were blocked by thick volcanic ash and the air was filled with the choking smell of gunpowder. Earthquakes shook every 30 minutes and I pleaded with Twitter to find us a rescuerTens of thousands of people have been evacuated from areas now under a security lockdown, and soldiers and police have been stopping desperate villagers from returning to retrieve belongings and save their poultry and cattle.
Police have allowed batches of residents to check their homes briefly during the day in some high-risk villages.
The volcano has remained at alert level 4, the second-highest warning of a volcano's danger, since Sunday.
The alert level indicates a hazardous explosive eruption is possible within hours or days.
The erupting Taal volcano remains a life-threatening danger despite weaker emissions and fewer tremors, an official has said.
Thousands of displaced villagers have been advised not to return to the danger zone despite the volcano emitting weaker ash and steam explosions on the sixth day of its eruption.
