Chilean Troops Force Volcano Evacuations

Photo Caption: A children's play area covered by ashes from the erupting of the Chaiten volcano is seen in Futaleufu, Chile, Thursday, May 8, 2008. The week-old eruption at the Chaiten volcano has scattered ash across a wide swath of South America, closing regional airports and driving more than 7,000 people from their homes. Credit: AP Photo/Ferran Majol

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Police and soldiers cleared the last remaining people from the shadow of a Chilean volcano on Thursday after a strong, overnight explosion spewed glowing-hot rocks from its crater.

The week-old eruption at the Chaiten volcano has scattered ash across a wide swath of South America, closing regional airports and driving more than 7,000 people from their homes. Volcanologist Luis Lara warned things could get worse.

"The worst that could happen is that the seismic activity begins to increase, the explosions become greater and large domes form that could collapse and produce pyroclastic flows," said Lara, an expert with the government's Geological and Mining Service.

Pyroclastic flows are blasts of volcanic material that can move at great speed, destroying everything in their path.

Armed with a court order for people to leave an area within a 30-mile (50-kilometer) radius of the mountain, authorities forcibly removed about 130 holdouts, mostly small farmers, who had refused to abandon their livestock.

Defense Minister Jose Goni said the government requested the court order "because the danger is clear, as the volcano remains very active."

Geologists reported that explosions around midnight on Wednesday hurled hot rock from the volcano.

On Thursday, Argentina's weather service said volcanic ash had reached the capital of Buenos Aires and was turning the sky "a grayish color," but not coating the ground. Such conditions were expected to persist there and in several southern provinces.

Two Argentine airlines, Austral and Aerolineas Argentinas, canceled flights in a half-dozen cities as drifting ash and smoke obscured visibility.

Chile's government said it has earmarked some US$10.6 million (euro6.8 million) in initial disaster funds to help victims in the coming month. Officials are also helping to move hundreds of head of livestock from the disaster zone, and promise to compensate farmers for animals that are killed.

-- Eduardo Gallardo, Associated Press Writer

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