Guatemalan authorities are evacuating more than 500 people after Central America’s most active volcano began spewing gas and ash.

Residents have been moved to shelters from communities near the Fuego volcano, 35km from the capital Guatemala City.

“We prefer to leave rather than mourn the death of everyone in the village later,” Celsa Perez, 25, said.

The Guatemalan government suspended local school activities and closed a road linking the south of the country to the colonial city of Antigua, a Unesco World Heritage Site, disaster coordination agency Conred reported.

There have been several such mass evacuations in recent years because of volcanic activity at Fuego, including in March of this year.

In 2018, 215 people were killed and a similar number missing when rivers of lava poured down the volcano’s slopes, devastating a village.

-Agence France-Presse