Volcanic ash drifted over major cities in Guatemala and Ecuador, grounding planes at international airports after volcanoes in the two countries sent lava and burning rocks showering onto nearby villages.

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom declared a 15-day state of emergency around the Pacaya volcano, 50km (31 miles) south of the capital Guatemala City.

The volcano burst into life on Wednesday and erupted again on Friday, killing two people, including a television reporter covering the event, and injuring 59. Three children remain missing after the eruption, which damaged 800 homes and caused up to 2,000 people to evacuate to nearby emergency shelters.

The airport closures were reminiscent of the massive blanket of ash Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokul volcano spewed out last month causing the biggest aerial shutdown in Europe since World War II, affecting more than 100,000 flights and eight million passengers.

Yesterday the Pacaya volcano was rocked by constant explosions and spewed bright-coloured plumes into the air.

Television reporter Anibal Archila was killed by a shower of burning rocks when he got too close to the volcano. He had earlier appeared on TV broadcasts standing in front of a lava river and burning trees, talking about the intense heat.

The second eruption-related fatality was that of a 22-year-old man who fell to his death as he cleaned volcano ash from the roof of a school.

In the village of Calderas, close to the eruption, local families hid under beds and tables as marble-sized rocks thundered down on homes. Car windshields were smashed, houses were damaged and clothes on washing lines were ruined by the blanketed in thick volcanic ash.

“We thought we wouldn’t survive. Our houses crumbled and we’ve lost everything, said Calderas local Brenda Castaneda while waiting for rescue teams to take them to a shelter at a nearby school.

Guatemala City was covered in a blanket of ash and dust, as people evacuated from the danger zone wandered the streets darkened by the ash cloud and the city’s two million inhabitants tried to cope with the catastrophe.

The head of the national seismological institute Eddy Sanchez warned more eruptions could take place “in the coming days” at Pacaya, the most active volcano in Central America.

Mr Sanchez said the volcano had accumulated a lot of energy over several years. “Like a pressure cooker, it will release the pressure violently,” he said.

Meanwhile in Ecuador, strong explosions rocked the Tungurahua volcano, prompting evacuations of hundreds of people from nearby villages.

Ecuador’s National Geophysics Institute said hot volcanic material blasted down the slopes and ash plumes soared 6 miles (10km) above a crater that is already 16,479 feet (5,023m) above sea level.

Winds blew the ash over the country’s most populous city, Guayaquil, and led aviation officials to halt flights out of the Pacific port and from Quito to Lima, Peru.

Despite the chaos, neither of the eruptions was expected to disrupt airports in neighbouring countries like Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokul volcano did in Europe.

In Guatemala, the ash billowing from Pacaya has been thick and falls quickly to the ground, unlike the lighter ash that spewed from the volcano in Iceland and swept over much of Europe, disrupting global air travel, said Gustavo Chigna, a volcano expert with Guatemala’s institute of seismology and volcanos.

In Ecuador, the ash cloud drifted out over the Pacific Ocean had tapered off by last night.

Sandro Vaca, an expert at Ecuador’s National Geophysics Institute, said Tungurahua’s latest eruption was not in the same league with Iceland’s problematic eruption.

“The ash stretched for hundreds of kilometers, while the plume of ash from the volcano in Iceland covered nearly all of Europe for thousands of kilometers,” Mr Vaca said.

The Pacaya volcano is 8,372 feet (2,552m) high and is the most active volcano in Central America. It has been intermittently erupting since 1966, and tourists frequently visit areas near three lava flows formed in eruptions between 1989 and 1991.

In 1998, the volcano twice spewed plumes of ash, forcing evacuations and shutting down the airport in Guatemala City.

Eruptions at Tungurahua, 95 miles (150km) southeast of the Ecuadorian capital of Quito, buried entire villages in 2006, leaving at least four dead and thousands homeless.

Read More about Volcanic activity

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7139916.ece