Torrent of volcanic mudflow hits Philippine village

Mount Kanlaon on Negros island exploded Monday evening, sending a plume ofash, rocks and gases five kilometres (three miles) into the sky.
Images posted on Facebook and verified by AFP on Wednesday show a torrent ofgrey mud and rocks, known as cold lava flow, or lahar, roaring down awatercourse in Biaknabato village in Negros Occidental province.
Residents can be seen walking barefoot through thick sludge covering a roadin the village, located a few kilometres from the volcano.
"The lahar on the streets is knee-deep," Stills Fernandez of the municipaldisaster agency told AFP.
A bulldozer and three dump trucks were deployed to remove the lahar after itstopped flowing but Fernandez said it "might take time" to clear.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Lahars are mammoth flows of volcanic debris deposited on a volcano's slopesand unleashed by heavy rain or snow melt. They can bury villages.
"We are still determining the extent and volume of the lahar," said TeresitoBacolcol, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
Bacolcol warned the public that lahar contained volcanic ash and was"dangerous".
Leah Martinez, 37, filmed the stream of volcanic debris flowing down a rockywatercourse near her village of Masulog, which is also close to the volcano.
"Before the lahar flow, there was a thunder-like sound again," Martinez toldAFP.
"I rushed outside. It was so loud. I thought the volcano had erupted again,"she said.
"We couldn't see anything at first, then there were large stones, ashes andwater flowing down the river."
It was not clear if other villages were affected or how many houses weredamaged.
Hundreds of people have been evacuated from their homes around Mount Kanlaondue to falling ash, gases and the threat of lahars.
The state volcanology agency has raised the alert level for the volcano fromone to two on a zero-to-five scale, warning more explosive eruptions werepossible.
The Philippines is located in the seismically active Pacific "Ring of Fire"that contains more than half the world's volcanoes.
Kanlaon is one of 24 active volcanoes in the archipelago nation.