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WIRE: 07/18/2001 3:11 pm ET

Mount Etna Erupts, Lava Flow Threatens Roads

ROME (Reuters) - Sicily's Mount Etna, Europe's most active volcano, erupted on Wednesday, forcing emergency services to build up defenses against a lava flow moving at 500 feet an hour. After days of tremors, lava spewed out of a new fissure in the volcano in the early hours of Wednesday morning at a height of 6,900 feet. Ash and smoke has been billowing out of Etna and over eastern Sicily for the past five days.

But the lava has not threatened any homes, as it flowed down an uninhabited slope.

Emergency services evacuated two restaurants and built up mud walls to guide the direction of the lava flow, while fire-fighters sprayed the seething magma with water.

"The lava flow has cut across (one) main road," said a spokesman for a vulcanology institute based in the western Sicilian town of Catania at the southeastern base of the volcano. "It is heading toward the southwest and experts are working up there to monitor its progress."

Etna, which looms over Catania, has been spouting small amounts of lava, ash and smoke intermittently since January last year, but has not erupted strongly enough to force villages around its slopes to evacuate.

The last eruption which posed a threat was in 1992 when lava streams headed toward Zafferana, a town of 7,000 people nestling on Etna's lower slopes. The Italian military had to use controlled explosions to divert the flow.

-- Anonymous, July 18, 2001

Answers

Response to Mt. Etna errupts

Etnacam is down but here's Strombolicam

Note at site says Etnacam has been damaged by the eruption swarm and will be repaired ASAP.

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001

Response to Mt. Etna errupts

BBC Thursday, 19 July, 2001, 06:42 GMT 07:42 UK In pictures: Etna erupts After days of tremors Sicily's Mount Etna, the most active volcano in Europe, erupted on Wednesday.

Lava spewed out of a new fissure in the volcano at a height of 2,100 m (6,900 feet), forcing emergency services to build up defences against lava moving at 150 m (500 feet) an hour.

Mud walls were erected to guide the direction of the lava flow, while fire-fighters sprayed the magma with water.

The lava has not threatened any homes, but one man needed hospital treatment after he was hit by a rock thrown out of the volcano.

Ash and smoke had been billowing out of Etna for days

Volcanologists have been monitoring the eruptions

Emergency services evacuated two restaurants as the lava flow poured onto a nearby road

Paramilitary police are patrolling all of the roads leading to the crater

Locals and tourists alike have been turning out to look at the lava

In June Etna was the scene of a week of spectacular volcanic activity

-- Anonymous, July 19, 2001