Local officials placed Irosin Town in Sorsogon Province, the central Philippines, under a state of calamity after a series of ash explosions from the active volcano Mount Bulusan, a TV report said here on Tuesday.

Everything in Irosin Town, a populated area near Mount Bulusan, is covered with a thick layer of ash spewed by the volcano, updating TV footage from the ABS-CBN news channel showed.

The report said government troops have cordoned off the four- kilometer permanent danger zone around the active volcano to keep people out.

Residents living around the volcano have started building temporary shelters in anticipation of the major eruption, while trucks were ready for a massive evacuation.

On Monday hundreds of residents living within Mount Bulusan's permanent danger zone were evacuated from their homes because of the ash explosion on Sunday afternoon.

Ernesto Corpuz of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) was quoted by the report as saying that Mount Bulusan is expected to spew more volcanic ash in the coming days.

"It will just continue to explode. (There will be) small ash explosions just like (the one on) Sunday," Corpuz said.

The PHIVOLCS authority is also anticipating a major eruption because of the minor earthquakes coming from Mount Bulusan.

Source: Xinhua