Montserrat volcano spews

Montserrat's airport was a smouldering ruin and several villages were in flames yesterday as waves of ultra-hot rock, gas and ash poured out of the island's volcano for a second day.

"Just a few minutes ago, we had another pyroclastic flow," Richard Aspin, spokesman for Montserrat's Emergency Operations Center, said, referring to the white-hot rushes of volcanic material, which travel at speeds up to 100mph. Mr Aspin said the flows adding to the British territory's misery yesterday seemed to be of the same magnitude as spewed from the Soufriere Hills volcano on 25 June when the volcano claimed up to 20 lives. There were no reports of casualties yesterday. Reuters