Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano erupted early yesterday morning, throwing red-hot rocks high into the sky as soldiers patrolled to ensure the area had been completely evacuated.
Up to 56,000 people were warned to evacuate their homes, as authorities extended the danger zone from 12km to 24km around the volcano, 60km east of the capital, Mexico City.
Mexico's National Disaster Prevention Centre (Cenapred) warned that explosions at 8.08 a.m. Irish time, after a short lull, marked a new, more intense phase of volcanic activity. Redhot rocks spewed roughly 500 metres into the air in the early-morning eruption, Cenapred said.
About 2,000 soldiers, called in to monitor evacuations of 20 villages in the danger zone, patrolled the ghost-like towns to make sure everyone had left, as the Mexican President, Mr Vicente Fox, said the area was under a "maximum alert".
Live television images yesterday of the incandescent crater of the 5,230-metre volcano, whose name means "smoky mountain" in the native Nahuatl language, showed plumes of red-hot cinders shooting two kilometres into the night sky.
Mr Abel Apanco, mayor of San Nicolas, which lies about 10km from the crater, said: "It all began on Friday evening.
"There was a bit of smoke and then suddenly an extraordinary eruption which lasted more than half-an-hour," he said.
"The heat has melted the ice cap around the crater. There is a risk of avalanches and flooding. But fortunately the population has been completely evacuated," he added.
On the deserted streets of San Nicolas, only dogs hastily abandoned by their owners accompanied Mr Apanco and his colleagues on a final tour of the village.
So far, the only victim has been a 75-year-old man living near the volcano who died of a heart attack as he watched the eruption.