City of a million threatened by volcano 

By Jan McGirk, Latin America Correspondent 


12 November 1999 

People in Quito are donning masks again as Guagua Pichincha volcano, seven miles from the Ecuadorean capital, belches ash, sulphur and gas. 

Vulcanologists have posted "yellow alert" warnings on highways, indicating that the mountain, one of 31 active volcanoes in the country, could explode "imminently". Hours after thousands of pupils were evacuated from schools on Tuesday, the rumblings grew dramatically louder, while wind carried sooty grey particles from the crater and dumped them on the city of 1.2 million.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Americas/volcano121199.shtml