Tourists fled from the sides of Sicily’s Mount Etna on Monday after it erupted, sending dense clouds of ash and gas miles into the sky.
Dozens of people were seen scrambling down Europe’s largest active volcano after it was shaken by tremors that were widely felt in surrounding towns and villages.
Billowing clouds were visible from some distance, with images showing the eruption visible from the Ancient Theatre of Taormina, about 45 kilometres away.
However, the eruption was confined to the summit and did not threaten any visitor zones or local towns, officials said.
It began in the early hours of Monday morning following volcanic tremors, and Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said eruption activity has continued since then with “increasing intensity” and was “almost continuous”, with the potential to escalate further.
But Sicilian officials and volcanic experts reassured locals and tourists alike that the closely monitored eruption posed no danger to those on the Mediterranean island.
“Although this can appear terrifying to tourists visiting the volcano, this activity is nothing unusual for Mount Etna, which is almost continually active and has these sorts of eruptions every year or two,” Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London told The Independent.
Locals close to the volcano took Monday’s eruption in their stride.
“Mount Etna is erupting, look!” said Giorgio, a local hotel owner who explained the eruptions are regular and that Sicilians in the port city of Catania are now used to regular disturbances which can coat the area in a thin layer of ash.
In the centre of Catania, celebrations continued for Festa della Repubblica, a national holiday marking the foundation of the modern Italian republic in 1946. Tourists near the Basilica Cattedrale di Sant’Agata queued for gelato in the 29C heat as plumes of smoke drifted skywards in the distance.
Alert levels were raised at Catania Airport, but no major flight disruptions were reported.
It was one of more than a dozen eruptions this year alone at Mount Etna, which is also known as the ‘Lady of the Rings’ due to rings of water vapour it can produce.
Professor Dougal Jerram, a volcanologist and geologist, said this week’s eruption on Etna followed plenty of recent eruptive behaviour.
“There was around, I think, 13 reported eruptions in the year. And often they can be quite small. Occasionally, they can start with an explosive phase like this one has,” he told The Independent.
While Monday’s eruption began explosively, a key reassurance for officials and the more than one million people living within roughly 18 miles of the volcano was that lava flow had not yet reached the Valley of the Lion, which is the limit to how high tourists are allowed to go on the mountain.
President of the Sicilian region Renato Schifani said authorities were following the volcanic activity “with extreme caution”.
“At the moment, from the first surveys, the material has not exceeded the edge of the Valley of the Lion and, as they assure me, there is no danger for the population.”
Enrico Trantino, the mayor of Catania, the closest large urban area, said everything was “normal and under control”. He told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that due to the monitoring of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the summit area had already been closed prior to the eruption.
Prof Jerram said continuing volcanic activity is the main concern.
“The thing to look out for is whether this then does carry on for some significant time. It can often go on for several days, weeks and even months, whether that leads to more significant lava flows in the not-too-distant future,” he said.
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