Authorities today began evacuating 1,500 residents living on the slopes of a volcano in south-west Colombia over concerns it is about to erupt.

The evacuation order was given last night and emergency officials early today began knocking on the doors of the poor subsistence farmers who live on the Galeras volcano, located near the Ecuador border 340 miles south-west of Bogotá, said Roberto Torres, a geologist at Colombia's Geology and Mines Institute.