About 4,000 residents have fled Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire as red-hot rock and ash spewed into the sky and cascaded down the slopes towards an area devastated by a deadly eruption earlier this year.

Guatemala’s volcanology unit said explosions from the 12,300ft high mountain shook homes with “constant sounds similar to a train locomotive”.

Incandescent material burst as high as 3,200ft above the crater and flows of hot rock and ash extended nearly two miles down one flank of the volcano.

Hot blasts of pyroclastic material pushed down canyons on the slopes, while a column of ash rose nearly 23,000ft above sea level and drifted towards Guatemala City to the east.

Hundreds of families heeded the call of disaster co-ordination authorities to evacuate 10 communities, piling into yellow school buses for trips to shelters.

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