The Italian authorities said that a huge eruption in Mount Etna forced tourists to flee the volcano on Monday after a pillar of high temperature, ash and rocks “several kilometers” in the air over them.
The shots published on social media show long lines of people who are rushing to the bottom of the explosion while the owner of one tourist company told CNN that they had 40 people on the hiccups when erupted.
The volcano on the Italian island of Sicily is a famous tourist destination visited by 1.5 million people annually, as many of them move almost to a top.
Although MT. Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, but there has been no eruption of this size since 2014, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and the Observatory of Volcanology.
The observatory added that the explosions are still increasing in density and the mountain takes out a very small amount of lava and fire.
This explosion, which began overnight, produced the explosions that heard away from the swelling and Catania, which is about 50 kilometers and 40 km (31 miles and 25 miles), respectively, according to many witnesses who published footage on social media.
The observatory said that the initial notes show a “partial collapse” of the northern side of the southeastern hole of the volcano, which produced amazing lava flows during the recent explosions in the past few months.
The Sicilian Civil Protection Agency issued a volcanic aircraft notice (Vona), which means that all the flight travel should avoid the area. The airports in Catania and Permo remain open, at the present time, the wind does not blow the ash at the direction of the airport. However, some flights from Catania were transferred to Palermo, according to airline radar data.
At approximately one o’clock in the afternoon local time (7 am East time), the volcano that comes out of the hot lava, which is more in line with previous explosions, said, a spokesman for the observatory said.
The observatory identified volcanic activity as a perklotite eruption, which led to a “significant increase in volcanic tremor and the formation of a dual column that contains a fatal mixture of high -temperature gas, volcanic lava grains, volcanic ash, and shale ash from various weapons that quickly descend under the slopes.
This is a developing story.
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