MEXICO CITY, July 1: Mount Popocatepetl was at its most active for decades yesterday spewing smoke and ash into the air and causing authorities to consider evacuating nearby villages. ``An eight kilometre high cloud of smoke rose into the air from the summit of the 5,452 metre high volcano situated 70 km south-east from Mexico City,'' television reports said.

It also rained ash and grit onto the surrounding villages and large parts of Mexico where the airport had to be temporarily closed. Officials called for calm while the Cenapred National Centre for Catastrophe Prevention said the eruption had started at 17.55 a.m. local time and had lasted 25 minutes.

The eruption was accompanied by an earthquake. Had it lasted just ten more minutes, Cenapred said, an evacuation of nearby villages would have been ordered. Some 100,000 people live in 30 villages in the danger zone around the volcano. Mexican Interior Minister Emilio Chuayffet said the eruption posed no danger for Mexico's 20 million inhabitants.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.