MANILA: More than 11,000 evacuees have been allowed to return to their homes after they were found to be living beyond the six-to-seven kilometre danger zone threatened by restive Mayon Volcano in Albay province in the Bicol Region, an official reported on Friday.

Meladee Azur, the head of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC), said the evacuees who decamped, came from several “barangay: (villages) in Albay’s capital city of Legaspi, who sought refuge in public school buildings.

Azur pointed out the evacuees, representing about 6,000 families, were found to be living from eight to 8.6 kilometres beyond the volcano’s expanded danger zone of from six to seven kilometres.

“That was a voluntary evacuation. It was not mandatory evacuation. We just recommended the villagers to evacuate because they couldn’t sleep at night,” Azur explained.

In its latest bulletin on Friday morning, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said it allowed the evacuees to decamp after finding that Mayon has not showed signs of an “explosive eruption” despite its current activity of lava flows, tremors and ground deformations.

Phivolcs also retained its Alert Level 3 over the the volcano with a warning that a major eruption could occur within days or even weeks..

Meanwhile, provincial officials said close to 6,000 families or more than 27,000 individuals remained in the evacuation centers in the cities of Tabaco and Ligao as well as the towns of Daraga, Camalig, Guinobatan, Malilipot and Santo Domingo.

Mayflor Marie Jumamil, the Department of Education regional spokesman in Bicol, reported that 34 public schools are now being used as evacuation centers in Albay.

Close to 9,000 were affected by the suspension of classes due to Mayon’s activity amid a warning from education officials that the scheduled graduation of many of the students in March would be affected.

On Thursday, Phivolcs said that Mayon, a major tourist attraction in Albay as the volcano with the world’s most perfect cone, underwent a “facelift” with a new dome that formed after a recent unrest that started on Jan.13.

The dome replaced the old lava dome that was formed when the volcano erupted in 2014, according to Phivolcs.