By Karina Balderas
SAN PEDRO
CHOLULA, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano spewed
molten rock into the sky Tuesday forcing more than 30,000 people
to abandon their homes and sparking fears a glacier could become
dislodged and trigger massive mudslides.
Flaming rock
burst from the 17,884-foot high volcano at 2 a.m. on -- the second
eruption in a few hours in what was the volcano's most violent
activity for decades -- perhaps centuries.
Mexican authorities,
fearing a roughly 3,000 feet long glacier on the volcano's western
face could become dislodged by molten rock and cause mudslides,
expanded an emergency zone to 12.5 miles from 7.5 miles.
``We are on
maximum alert ... because we have to be ready for any possible
contingency regarding the glacier,'' Interior Minister Santiago
Creel told a news conference on Tuesday.
The volcano,
revered as a divinity by indigenous peoples before the 1521 Spanish
Conquest, was stable later Tuesday but authorities predicted more
activity before the day was out.
Authorities
helped establish makeshift shelters for the more than 30,000 evacuees,
whose homes were near the base of the volcano.
Creel said
eventually more than 48,000 people living in central Puebla, Mexico
and Morelos states near the mountain -- Mexico's second highest
-- would have to be evacuated from their homes.
President
Vicente Fox flew by helicopter to towns near the volcano and toured
evacuee shelters as government officials met to coordinate their
response to the emergency.
Evacuated
Villagers Fear For Homes, Family Members
In a refuge
in San Pedro Cholula, in Puebla state which Fox visited early
Tuesday, villagers who had been evacuated from their homes voiced
worries about family members who had been separated from them
in the upheaval.
``I want to
find my children. They are very small. They left the house first
and by the time I came out last night they had gone, I must look
for them,'' Margarita Cortes, carrying a baby on her back, told
Reuters.
Cortes' husband,
like other men from villages at risk, stayed back out of fear
for his home. Others have been driven home in army trucks to check
on their abandoned properties.
One man,
aged 75, apparently overcome by shock from the eruption, reportedly
died of a heart attack on Monday in the village of San Pedro Benito
Juarez, in Puebla state.
Local radio
reported that in the village of Santiago Xalitzintla, in Puebla
state, soldiers forced residents to leave their houses on Monday
night as the mountain threw up slabs of molten rock, some as much
as 1.5 feet (45 cm) in diameter.
Army patrols
were manning many of the roads into communities closest to the
volcano. Puebla city airport was closed on Tuesday.
Popocatepetl,
or ``smoking mountain'' in the indigenous Nahuatl language and
pronounced poh-poh-kah-teh-peh-til, 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 April 1996,
five mountain climbers died near the crater's rim during an explosion
of the volcano, which is believed to have been formed about 300,000
years ago.
Fox, who was
sworn in on Dec. 1, attempted to reassure villagers in refuges
as government officials met to coordinate their response to the
emergency.
``You can
rest assured, the army is looking after your houses and everything,''
he told a woman in an evacuation shelter in Chalco, in Mexico
state.
Creel said
some 1,500 troops from the armed forces and 800 more police were
involved in the emergency operation and that there had only been
minor incidents of looting.
Airplanes
were taking off and landing normally in Mexico City airport, 42
miles from the volcano. Ash can pose a danger to airplanes if
it enters their turbines.
``...No airline
has suspended flights,'' Roberto Canovas, director of the air
terminal, told journalists.
Mexico City
authorities said a rain of ash could cover the city but so far
winds had blown the volcanic ash toward Puebla state.
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