Tourists flee from their hotels as volcano erupts on Italian holiday island of Stromboli ‘filling the sky with ash’
- The volcano erupted at just before 5pm local time on Wednesday afternoon
- Fires broke out on the island’s west side but it is unclear if there are any injuries
- A hotel worker on the east side of the island said she heard a ‘loud roar’
- Have you been affected by the incident? email miranda.aldersley@mailonline.co.uk
A volcano on the Italian island of Stromboli erupted on Wednesday, throwing ash high into the sky and sending frightened tourists fleeing their hotels.
The popular tourist destination was envolved in smoke, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.
The National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) confirmed a series of unexpected explosions on the small Mediterranean island, which began at 4.51pm local time.
Tourists reportedly fled from their hotels and a large cloud of ash swept over the island
Ash rises into the sky after a volcano eruption on the small Mediterranean island of Stromboli, Italy today
The Stromboli volcano on the island of the same name, off the coast of Sicily, erupted on Wednesday afternoon
Rescue services said the eruption had started fires on the western side of the small Mediterranean island north of Sicily.
Fire crews were being called in from nearby locations and a Canadair plane was already in action.
‘We saw the explosion from the hotel. There was a loud roar,’ said Michela Favorito, who works in a hotel near Fico Grande, on the east side of the island.
‘We plugged our ears and after this a cloud of ash swept over us. The whole sky is full of ash, a fairly large cloud,’ she said.
One witness described the eruption on Twitter as ‘sudden and violent’, adding that it was surprising because Stromboli’s volcano was thought to be inactive
According to reports, the island of Stromboli was hit by a set of violent volcano eruptions spurring beach tourists to run into the sea
The explosion occurred just before 5pm and was described by one hotel worker, who heard a ‘loud roar’
Fiona Carter, a British tourist on the island of Panarea, some 27 km (17 miles) from Stromboli, heard the blast.
‘We turned around to see a mushroom cloud coming from Stromboli. Everyone was in shock. Then red hot lava started running down the mountain towards the little village of Ginostra,’ she said.
‘The cloud got bigger, white and grey. It enveloped Ginostra and now the cloud has covered Stromboli entirely. Several boats set off for Stromboli,’ she added.
One witness described the eruption as ‘sudden and violent’.
‘Tourists diving into the sea to avoid lava after Stromboli eruption,’ they wrote on Twitter. ‘It’s not a particularly active volcano, so that’s a surprise.’
INGV expert Stefano Branca said there had been a ‘paroxysmal eruption’ on the island, when high-pressure magma explodes from a shallow, underground reservoir.
The National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) confirmed there was an unexpected explosion on the small Mediterranean island
‘These are events of great intensity and quite rare,’ he said.
Tourists often climb to the 924-metre (3,000-foot) summit of the volcano and peer into its crater, with small puffs of molten rock regularly blasted into the sky. It was not clear if anyone was on the crater at the time of the latest blast.
According to the geology.com website, Stromboli is one of the most active volcanoes on the planet and has been erupting almost continuously since 1932.
The island was the setting for a 1950 movie starring Ingrid Bergman and, with other islands in the Aeolian archipelago, has become a favourite location in recent decades for holiday homes for the rich and famous.