Three German tourists and their Filipino tour guide were crushed to death when one of the Philippines’ most active volcanoes spewed a giant ash cloud and a hail of rocks on Tuesday, authorities said.

Up to 20 foreigners and their guides were on the slopes of picturesque Mount Mayon when it erupted without warning, and rescue workers had been dispatched on helicopters to search for survivors, officials and a tour operator said.
“It rained like hell with stones,” local tour operator Marti Calleja quoted an Austrian woman who survived the ordeal as saying.

“The rocks that came crashing down on them were as big as dining (table) sets,” he told AFP by phone.