Tens of thousands of villagers evacuated from around the Philippines’ most active volcano are being allowed to return home after scientists gave the all clear.

Security forces in army trucks today sent thousands more residents away from the smouldering Mayon volcano, which looks set for a major eruption.

THE Philippines’ most active volcano oozed lava and shot up plumes of ash yesterday, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes and face the possibility of a bleak Christmas in a shelter.

Thousands of villagers were evacuated from their homes near the Philippines' most active volcano today after it oozed lava and shot plumes of ash.

TENS of thousands of villagers fled the likely path of a powerful typhoon bearing down yesterday on the Philippines, as the government braced for the possibility of a second disaster just days after a storm killed more than 420 in four southeast Asian countries.

A tropical storm set off landslides and swamped farmland in the north-eastern Philippines, leaving at least 11 people dead and nine others missing, officials said today.

Officials in the Philippines refused to give up hope of rescuing some of the 800 people missing after a ferry capsized during Typhoon Fengshen, even as high seas stalled efforts to get inside the vessel today.

Two young boys were killed and another injured when a bomb they picked up in a hospital’s backyard exploded, police in the eastern Philippines said today.

Typhoon Utor lashed the central and eastern Philippines today, killing four people, including two toddlers, and forcing more than 90,000 people to flee to evacuation centres, officials said.

THE typhoon that ravaged the Philippines with landslides and torrential rain slammed into Vietnam’s southern coast yesterday as a tropical storm, killing at least 50 people and destroying thousands of homes.

Rescuers today gave up hope of finding survivors in villages swamped by mudslides on the slopes of the Mayon volcano, five days after a typhoon killed an estimated 1,000 people.

Rescuers, some using their bare hands, combed mud-stricken villages on the slopes of the Philippines’ Mayon volcano today, five days after a typhoon left a trail of destruction estimated to have killed more than 1,000 people.

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared a state of national calamity today as the top Red Cross official estimated more than 1,000 people have been killed after a massive typhoon unleashed walls of black mud on entire villages.

Hopes virtually vanished today for finding survivors of typhoon-triggered mudslides that engulfed entire villages in the eastern Philippines, with the Red Cross fearing the death toll could reach 700.

The fourth devastating super typhoon in as many months has battered the Philippines, setting off a volcanic mudslide and widespread flooding that killed at least 109 people and left dozens more missing, officials said today.

The Mayon volcano in the Philippines appeared ready to blow its top today as six explosions sent ash columns up to a half-mile high and led officials to evacuate tens of thousands of people from an extended danger zone.