Chilean authorities were evacuating the last of thousands of residents from the vicinity of a volcano in southern Chile today, as it continued to spew fine ash for a second day after a surprise eruption.
Around 3,900 people have been evacuated from the Patagonian town of Chaiten and its surroundings since yesterday, with another 500 waiting for boats to take them to the town of Castro on the island of Chiloe, slightly further north and Puerto Montt on the mainland.
Some are staying in guesthouses, while schools have been turned into makeshift shelters packed with stores of bottled water after the ash contaminated ground water supplies.
Technicians were dispatched to restore phone lines in and around Chaiten and ensure electricity supplies, while experts took water samples.
"The volcanic activity is continuing, with fine ash falling in the area," the National Emergency Office, ONEMI, said in a statement. It said visibility remained poor, with ash clouding the skies, and that the smell of sulfur hung heavy in the air in some places.
"Today another 500 people will be evacuated (by boat)," it added. "Once complete, the whole town of Chaiten will have been evacuated."
Some residents wore white surgical facemasks to avoid inhaling the ash -- which in some areas lay 15 cm deep.
Snow-capped Chaiten volcano, which is around 1,000 meters high and lies around 10 km from the town, erupted yesterday, triggering earth tremors and spewing a cloud of ash 3 km into the air.