Officials said soldiers would work throughout the night to get around 35,000 people to safety from the area around Mayon, one of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines.

The country's five-step volcano alert was raised to level four, meaning an eruption could occur within days, said Ernesto Corpus from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

Early Monday the area around Mayon was rocked by six successive volcanic blasts, followed by a fountain of lava from its crater.

"This signifies that Mayon is almost ready to burst," Corpus said. By mid-morning the peak was covered in a dark cloud of volcanic material several kilometers high.

Around 15,000 people had been evacuated by nightfall from the area around Mayon, some 350 kilometres (200 miles) southeast of Manila. It has erupted 47 times since records began being kept in 1616.

The deadliest eruption came on February 1, 1814, when Mayon spewed masses of lava that buried the town of Cagsawa and killed an estimated 1,200 people. Its last deadly eruption in 1993 left 68 people dead.

"As of three hours ago, more than half of those supposed to be evacuated have been evacuated," Glen Rabonza, administrator of the civil defense office in Manila, told reporters.

"We have not received any information that anyone is resisting the order (to leave)," he added.

Noel Rosal, the mayor of the town of Legaspi near Mayon, said more than 10,000 people had been evacuated just from four villages on Mayon's lower slopes.

"We are just waiting for them to gather some of their things before we take them to the major evacuation centers," he said, adding: "Some are reluctant to leave."

In all, 29 hamlets around Mayon were to be evacuated, provincial governor Fernando Gonzalez told reporters. Provincial officials said it was slow going, with farmers reluctant to leave their land for fear of looting.

The volcanology institute said hot ash, boulders and debris thrown from the crater of the 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) mountain could threaten anyone within an eight-kilometer (five-mile) radius.

Jukes Nunes, a Legaspi disaster official, told AFP that the evacuation will continue throughout the night until all the roughly 34,000 people living in the danger zone were moved.

Mayon began abnormal activity in February and started emitting small lava flows on July 15.

Mayor Rosal said the lava eruption last month "gave us ample lead time to prepare the evacuation centers" -- mostly schools and other government buildings beyond the volcano danger zone.

They were stocked with a week's worth of food as well as sleeping facilities, while tap water and electricity connections were provided, officials said.

"We have enough funds to cover the food, water, medicine and other requirements of this evacuation and tending to the people in the evacuation centers for the next several weeks or months," Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz said.

He said 80 tents were on standby to serve as temporary schoolhouses for children displaced by the evacuees.

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