Villages rocked by volcano eruption

A 17,886ft volcano outside Mexico City exhaled dozens of towering plumes of ash and shot fragments of glowing rock down its slopes this morning, frightening the residents of surrounding villages with hours of low-pitched roaring not heard in a decade.

A white cloud of ash, gas, water vapour and superheated rock spewed from the cone of Popocatepetl high above the village of Xalitzintla, whose residents said they were awakened by a window-rattling series of eruptions.