Thousands of residents in Negros Occidental will be evacuated as Kanlaon Volcano was placed under Alert Level Three by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) on Monday afternoon.

In a radio interview, Maria Cristina Mayor of Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in Western Visayas confirmed the ongoing emergency evacuation in four barangays of La Castellana and two others in Bago City in Negros Occidental.

"Our evacuation involves the six km danger zone from the crater of Mt. Kanlaon. So now evacuation is ongoing in the affected barangays particularly in the municipality of La Castellana and Bago City," she said.

"In La Castellana alone based on our projection, there are 4,900 (population that will be) affected by our ongoing evacuation," she added.

Aside from water, mobile kitchens and food packs, Mayor said the affected areas also need face masks due to ash fall and sulfur odor.

"The response clusters were already activated and the immediate needs in the affected areas include face masks due to ash fall and sulfur odor," she said.

"There are reported ashfalls not just sulfur odor but ashfall as far as Guimaras Island in the province of Guimaras. It reached the municipalities of Buenavista and San Lorenzo," she added. Robina Asido/DMS