Vital supplies to help people fleeing an erupting volcano in Africa were flown out to the disaster zone by Oxford-based charity Oxfam on Saturday.

Lava began pouring from Mount Nyiragongo, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on Thursday.

Thousands of people fled to escape, some to neighbouring Rwanda.

Buildings, including the Oxfam office, in the Congoese city of Goma have also been destroyed.

The charity, based in Banbury Road, Summertown, Oxford, stores crates of equipment in a warehouse in Bicester to provide clean water to emergency areas.

The crates, packed with £150,000 worth of water tanks, pipes and buckets, water treatment kits, and bedding, were flown to Rwanda from London.

It is not believed that any workers from Oxfordshire were based in the disaster area at the time of the eruption.

Humanitarian co-ordinator Andrew Bonwick, based at Summertown, said: "Conflict has devastated the DRC over a period of many years. This volcano can only be seen as a major disaster."