A massive eruption at Mt. Etna in Italy forced tourists to flee the volcano on Monday after a plume of high-temperature gases, ash, and rock billowed into the air. Italian authorities reported that the plume reached several kilometers high. Footage posted on social media showed long lines of people hurrying downhill away from the explosion.
Giuseppe Panfallo, a guide with Go Etna, filmed his tour group huddled together with an enormous ash cloud in the distance. “We were nearly grazed, look at this cloud here. We were two steps away and thank goodness we have a responsible guide with us,” he said in the video. “It arrived all at once, an immense smoke, immense, immense roar.”
According to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology Observatory, all tourists and trekkers on the volcano when it erupted have been evacuated safely. Sightseers were told to avoid the area due to the “potential evolution of the situation,” according to Salvo Cocina, head of the Sicilian Civil Protection Agency. The volcano is a popular tourist destination visited by 1.5 million people a year, many of whom trek almost all the way to its summit.
The eruption produced explosions heard as far away as Taormina and Catania, which are about 50 kilometers and 40 kilometers away, respectively. One eyewitness described the eruption as characterized by a “sudden, powerful boom.” Alessio Zocco, a hiking guide who works on the volcano, said, “Today’s eruption seemed, at first, similar to others — but what made it stand out was a sudden, powerful boom. It was a dramatic moment, but fortunately short-lived.”
The observatory defined the volcanic activity as a pyroclastic eruption, resulting in a “significant increase in volcanic tremor and the formation of an eruptive column containing a lethal mixture of high-temperature gases, lava grains, volcanic ash, and rock fragments of various sizes that rapidly descends down the slopes of the volcano.” The authorities have closed many of the roads heading up to the volcano to prevent people trying to get close to the eruption and from getting in the way of first responders and emergency vehicles.
The president of the Sicilian Region, Renato Schifani, recommended “maximum precaution for hikers” and advised them to “avoid the summit area of the volcano until further notice, in consideration of the potential evolution of the phenomenon.” Nearby airports in Catania and Palermo remain open, but some flights from Catania have been directed to Palermo due to the eruption.