Italy's Mount Etna erupts, spews ash, forces airport to shutdown
Mount Etna
Flight operations were halted in an Italian city after Europe’s most active volcano— Mount Etna—erupted, spewing ash across the runway.
The 3,330 metre (10,925 ft) high volcano, located on the eastern coast of Sicily near Catania city, began erupting Sunday morning, Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) told The Associated Press.
The INGV noted that cloud cover and a rainy dayimpeded the views of the eruption, which "often serves up a spectacular display of flaming lava".
According to the institute, the volcano ash covered the Catania skies and at least one town on Mount Etna’s inhabited slopes. Local media has, so far, not reported any injuries or fatalities.
Several cars in Catania city were covered in a layer of dark gritty dust, images in Italian media showed.
Catania Airport tweeted that flight operations have been temporarily suspended due to ashfall.It had already closed a sector of airspace due to the eruption, causing a number of delays in arrivals and departures to Sicily, one of Italy's most popular tourist destinations.
INGV indicated that monitoring had recorded evidence of an increase in tremor activity in recent days.
Though inclement weather obscured their views of “spectacular eruption”, residents of Adrano and Biancavilla reportedly heard loud booms from the volcano earlier in the day, the Italian news agencyANSAreported.
The eruption was anticipated for days as Italy’s Civil Protection Agency had sent out an alert on Thursday warning that due to increased volcanic activity, ‘sudden’ variations in the volcano’s activity could occur.
Most active volcano
Mount Etna is Europe’s most active volcano. The last major eruption was in 1992.
In 2021, it erupted for several weeks within the six-month period of activity. As a result, the volcano’s height increased by 100ft because of the amount of volcanic material it spewed. The southeastern crater is now the tallest part of the volcano.
The volcano is in an almost constant state of activity and it’s considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Floods swarm Italy
It comes at a time when Italy is already reeling under one of its most devastating floods in recent years.
The catastrophic floods claimed 14 lives and displaced more than 36,000 people. Local media reports that many cities are still under water, prompting Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to cut short her G7 summit in Japan’s Hiroshima city.
(With inputsfromagencies)