The threat of the Philippines’ Taal volcano unleashing a potentially catastrophic eruption remains high. The authorities have warned today that it was showing dangerous signs.

Scores of earthquakes rattle the region daily and large fissures are opening up in the ground, which means the magma that would fuel a major eruption is still flowing beneath. Authorities are struggling to deal with nearly 50,000 evacuees, who fled to shelters after Taal burston Sunday.

The country’s most powerful explosion in recent years was the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, about 100 kilometres northwest of Manila, which killed more than 800 people.