Fountains of lava and columns of ash illuminated by lightning rising to the sky; once bustling towns reduced to silence; empty streets swirling with dust and houses hastily abandoned; cars driving blindly through dust storms; gardens and orchards reduced to a uniform, eerie grey. It was not the sort of Monday morning Filipinos were planning for. “The scary thing is, right now it’s so dark, the entire sky has become cloudy grey,” said Jonathan Domingo, who lives on a ridge in Tagaytay City, a tourist destination famous for its views of Taal volcano, which has been spurting jets of red-hot lava hundreds of metres into the air since bursting to life on Sunday. A “hazardous explosive eruption” of Taal was expected within “hours or days”, authorities said on Monday, warning that more than 200,000 people could be forced to flee if conditions worsened. Already, some 45,000 people have been evacuated from high-risk areas surrounding the volcano, which is located just 65km (40 miles) south of the capital. Yet Domingo has taken matters in stride, at least for now. Most of the people in his village have fled and few establishments remain open, but he plans not to evacuate just yet though he concedes that “if you’re going to use the strict definition, yes we are in a high risk area”. Domingo and his partner Ron Art Allado spent the night photographing the eruptions, making the most of stunning lightning shows that have periodically played out above the volcano in a little-understood phenomenon that has been attributed to static electricity. The pair have posted their work on Facebook “for posterity”. Not all vantage points have been so fortunate. Dust particles larger than a golf ball fell in some areas close to Taal, while rainfall transformed the ash into a sludge that has covered roads, houses, cars and trees in nearby towns. Taal Volcano is the most deadly in the Philippines. How big is latest eruption As some residents ran for shelter, others took their chances driving on roads with near zero visibility: in nearby Laguna province, a man died and three passengers were injured when the truck they were in overturned. Hundreds of flights were grounded as Manila’s international airport closed overnight due to the falling ash. The Hong Kong Airport Authority said in a statement that ten flights between Hong Kong and Manila were cancelled on Monday morning, including those run by Cathay Pacific Airways, Cebu Pacific Air, and Philippine Airlines. At least 11 flights were also cancelled or diverted between the two cities on Sunday night since the airport’s closure, according to FlightAware, a live flight tracker. Manila’s airport resumed partial operations at noon on Monday, with a flight to Hong Kong the first to take off. However, airport authorities said they would be forced to suspend operations again if the ashfall intensified. The Philippine consulate in Hong Kong said it was closely monitoring the situation and assisting travellers stranded at Hong Kong airport. Taal Volcano eruption triggers dozens of quakes and mass evacuation Even Filipinos awaiting repatriation from Iraq following a compulsory evacuation order due to the rising US-Iran tensions have been forced to wait. “If the airport can accept their flights, then they can come home,” Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told CNN Philippines. The country is now bracing for what Taal has in store next. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) has issued an alert level 4, advising everyone within 14km (8.7 miles) of the volcano to leave. According to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, half a million residents live within that radius. The Institute of Volcanology said it had recorded at least 144 volcanic earthquakes from Taal since Sunday. “Such intense seismic activity probably signifies continuous magmatic intrusion beneath the Taal edifice, which may lead to further eruptive activity,” Phivolcs said. ‘WE ARE PRAYING’ In the province of Batangas thousands fled to evacuation centres, terrified by a series of earthquakes that have accompanied the eruption. “We are praying,” said Governor Hermilando Mandanas, who has declared a state of calamity. “We are really scared of what might happen to us … that our house might collapse in a strong earthquake and that we’ll all be killed by falling debris,” said Bienvenido Musa, 56. “Who wouldn’t be scared?” Dr Ramon Castillo, a medical doctor at Batangas provincial hospital within the danger zone, evacuated his home with mixed emotions. He had just built his first house there two years ago. He said his neighbours also didn’t want to leave, but eventually evacuated. Castillo said when Taal erupted he happened to be at a convention in Taal Vista Hotel. Prior to the explosion he had joked with some of the participants that it “looked like the volcano will blow up”. When Taal actually did erupt, he said the participants didn’t panic. Instead they started taking selfies with the venting crater as a background. “And the convention went on for more than an hour.” Over in the capital, where winds had blown Taal’s dust plume, the city’s inhabitants woke to find gritty dust coating the streets and vehicles and a smell of sulphur in the air. Classes were suspended and government offices closed in Metro Manila, Batangas and 11 other provinces affected by the eruption and ash fall. Some areas extended the suspension to Tuesday. Filipinos in Hong Kong worry about families after Taal Volcano eruption The Chinese embassy warned its nationals in the Philippines to take care and follow government evacuation orders. Stores quickly sold out of dust masks, which health officials said could help protect against potentially harmful effects of the powder-like soot. Reports subsequently spread that shops were hiking prices to cash in. The vice-mayor of Manila City, Honey Lacuna-Pangan, said her office had received complaints the masks were being sold for 200 pesos (US$4), up from their usual 30 pesos (UA$0.60). “I’ll just stay at home and tie a handkerchief around my face. I think that’s OK,” Manila resident Menchie Claveria said, after unsuccessfully attempting to buy a mask. In Hong Kong, where thousands of Filipinos are thought to have family affected by the eruption, Shiela Tebia Bonifacio, chairwoman of Gabriela Hong Kong – an alliance of Filipino women – said her organisation was planning a crowdfunding campaign online to send donations. Dolores Balladares Palaez, 50, a domestic helper who has lived in Hong Kong for 25 years, said she was planning to buy masks in Hong Kong to send to her family of four, including her mother, 86, and son, 7. “I am very worried about my folks over there. I told them to stay home and I will buy masks for them,” she said. She said she was angry with the Philippine government, blaming it for not giving people an advance warning about the eruption. HOW LONG WILL IT LAST? Maria Antonia Bornas, head of volcano monitoring at Phivolcs, said it was unclear how long the eruptions would continue, saying that two significant past eruptions had played out in different ways. In 1911, the volcano’s deadliest eruption lasted for three days, killing more than 1,300 people. But in 1754, Taal volcano erupted for seven months, with the activity alternately waning and escalating from May to December. Taal, which is the second most active volcano in the Philippines after Mayon volcano in Albay, has erupted 33 times since 1572, Phivolcs said. Its last eruption was in October 1977. Mayon erupted in January 2018, displacing more than 80,000 residents. While official warnings about the continuing danger posed by Taal have prompted most hotels, restaurants and other commercial establishments in nearby towns to close, a few still are open, at least for now. Asia’s deadliest volcanic eruptions – and four of the ones to watch “Rest assured that we’re monitoring the situation and following government advisories,” said Richard Gamlin, general manager of Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay City, near to where Domingo and his partner were taking photographs for Facebook. “We have a trained emergency response team, a 24-hour nurse and clinic, generators that can last for weeks,” he added. A staff member of the hotel said there was no evacuation plan, but just nine of the 263 rooms were occupied by 20 guests, “none of them Chinese”. Another pair taking matters in stride were Chino and Kat Vaflor, who went ahead with their wedding on Sunday at a venue just 16km (10 miles) from the volcano. The pair told CNN they were “nervous” as they checked on the eruption, which provided plumes of ash as the backdrop to their wedding photos, but added that as they said “I do”, everyone remained calm. Additional reporting by Albert Han, Agence France-Presse and DPA