Mayon Volcano drives Filipino troops rush holdouts

LEGAZPI, Philippines – Philippine troops went house to house Thursday threatening to use force to move hundreds of residents from the steaming slopes of a lava-spilling volcano. Some farmers begged to stay to guard their livestock while their families spent Christmas Eve in a shelter.

Volunteers distributed games and ice cream to children in some 45 evacuation centers and were preparing meals to try to restore some holiday cheer.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered officials to search for all those still refusing to leave their farms within a 5-mile (8-kilometer) danger zone around Mayon volcano in the central Philippines.

Security forces were under orders to use force if necessary to ensure no one is hurt by flowing lava or red-hot rocks, said Jukes Nunez, a provincial disaster management official.

Volcanologists warned the weeklong moderate eruption of the 8,070-foot (2,460-meter) Mayon could escalate within days as the volcano belched out 20 gray ash columns Thursday, some of them a mile (1.5 kilometers) high.