(Sicily) – A huge eruption at Italy’s Mount Etna forced tourists to flee as a towering plume of hot gases, ash and rock shot several kilometres into the sky. The sudden blast on Monday sent visitors scrambling down the volcano, with many caught just metres from the expanding cloud of volcanic material.
Giuseppe Panfallo, a tour guide with Go Etna, captured footage showing his group huddled as the enormous ash cloud approached. “We were nearly grazed,” he said. “It came all at once — an immense smoke and roar.”
Mount Etna is one of the world’s most active volcanoes and a major tourist attraction, drawing around 1.5 million visitors every year who often hike close to the summit. Although eruptions are common, none have been as powerful since 2014, according to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.
The eruption’s explosions could be heard up to 50 kilometres away in towns such as Taormina and Catania, while satellite imagery showed a partial collapse of the northern flank of the volcano’s south-east crater. This area has been the source of spectacular lava flows in recent months.
Authorities have closed many roads leading to the volcano to keep tourists and onlookers safe and to allow emergency services to operate without hindrance. The mayor of Catania, Enrico Tarantino, said no ash was expected to fall on the city itself, but officials are ready to alert residents if wind directions change.
Nearby airports in Catania and Palermo remain open, although some flights from Catania were diverted to Palermo following safety precautions. The Sicilian Civil Protection Agency advised avoiding the airspace over the volcano.
By around 1pm local time, hot lava began flowing more steadily, resembling earlier eruptions. Observers described the event as a pyroclastic eruption, which produces a deadly mix of high-temperature gases, ash, lava grains and rock fragments. This material can rapidly descend the volcano’s slopes, posing serious danger.
