By Pav Jordan
MEXICO CITY
(Reuters) - Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano spewed molten rock into
the sky on Monday, causing small forest fires on its slopes in
Puebla state where thousands of residents had been evacuated but
many others refused to leave.
Television
images showed explosions of light above the volcano, which is
17,884 feet high and has been increasingly active in recent days,
showering several communities with ash.
No injuries
were immediately reported among the more than 25,000 residents
who remained around the base of the volcano.
Slabs of molten
rock, some with a diameter as big as 1.5 feet in diameter, were
shot some 125 yards into the sky above the volcano's crater.
``I think
that the people will have a reason now to leave their homes and
villages,'' Puebla state governor Melquiades Morales said in an
interview on local radio. He did not discount the possibility
of a forced evacuation if necessary.
Molten rock
and scalding sand continued to shoot from the mouth of the volcano
for over an hour, from 7:07 p.m. local time (8:07 p.m. EST), reportedly
burning trees in the area surrounding Popocatepetl, which is 40
miles from Mexico City.
Mexican President
Vicente Fox was making plans to address the nation, together with
his interior, defense and transport ministers.
Authorities
continued to urge residents living around the base of the volcano,
known as the ``smoking mountain'' in the indigenous Nahuatl language,
to evacuate the area.
Officials
called on residents living within a 7.4-mile radius to evacuate
to 180 refugee centers. Some 10,000 residents had been evacuated
by Sunday, but many more than that were refusing to leave their
homes.
Experts had
determined that a dome of lava had formed in the crater of the
volcano that could cause a buildup of pressure and lead to stronger
emissions than in recent days.
``The force
of the gas rising is causing these violent explosions through
the dome of lava,'' said Roberto Quaas, director of Mexico's National
Center for Prevention of Disasters (Cenapred).
The volcano
``Popo'' as it is known locally, was inactive from 1927 to 1994,
when there was a moderate eruption. Since then it has been increasingly
active, sending up smoke and ash columns. In November 1998 the
volcano spewed fragments of lava rock.
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