The lava that flowed from Mount Nyiragongo on Saturday evening cut a path of destruction through a northern district of Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Around 500 houses were flattened and over 100 children are missing after having been separated from their parents, according to the UN’s children’s agency, Unicef.
Charles Kambale has been sorting through the rubble in the spot in Buhene district where his house used to be.
“I have not seen my two youngest children yet,” he said.
He was at a wedding with this wife when the eruption began. The children, six and two, were at home with his neighbours. He said he planned to make an announcement on the radio to help find them.
Children were also picking through the rubble nearby, looking for scraps of metal or burned pots to sell.
Goma’s skyline lit up on Saturday as the lava erupted from a fissure in the side of the volcano.
Fearing that the lava would engulf parts of the city killing hundreds, as it did in 2002, thousands of people gathered their belongings and fled towards the nearby Rwandan border.