Mount Etna eruption live: Huge volcanic blast in Italy sends tourists fleeing
Mount Etna has erupted in Sicily, spewing a huge column of smoke and ash into the sky above the Italian island.
Footage shared on social media showed people running for their lives down the mountainside as a thick column of smoke intensified above them.
Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said in a widely reported statement that the volcano was experiencing strong strombolian explosions – a type of eruption – 'of growing intensity'.
'Over the past few hours, the falling of a little thin ash has been flagged in the Piano Vetore area,' the statement said.
According to the Volcanic Discovery website, prior to the eruption there were volcanic tremors which began at around 10pm local time and reached their peak shortly before 1am.
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