Earthquakes in Sicily jolt Mount Etna into life

Rivers of boiling lava poured down Mount Etna yesterday, engulfing small buildings and threatening a mountain lodge after a series of earthquakes awakened Europe's highest and most active volcano.

Pine trees caught fire almost instantly as the heat of the lava engulfed them and the stench of sulphur filled the air as cracks opened up in the ground, witnesses said.

Civil protection officials in Catania, Sicily's second-largest city, which sits in the shadow of Etna, surveyed the mountain by helicopter and were set to send water-carrying planes into the skies to fight the fires.

Catania's airport was shut until this morning for safety reasons after a think blanket of volcanic ash gathered on the runway. The mayor moved to reassure the city's 330,000 residents that they were in no danger.

"The situation in Catania is completely under control and our city is not threatened in any way," Umberto Scapagnini said.

The eruptions began in the early hours of yesterday, after a series of small earthquakes shook the eastern edge of Sicily and parts of mainland Italy.

Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology said more than 100 tremors measuring 1.1 to 3.5 on the Richter scale struck the region, with the epicentre just 1.5 kilometres south-east of the centre of Etna's crater.

The volcano, Europe's highest at 3,350 metres, pumped out huge dark clouds of ash and spurted streams of boiling magma 100 to 200 metres into the air.

More than 15 hours after the first eruptions, an immense mushroom-shaped cloud still hung over the mountain top, and in Catania, city workers were sweeping thick layers of ash from the streets.

Three tongues of lava were seen snaking down the mountain from fissures at a height of around 2,300 to 2,500 metres. Cracks were also found at about 1,500 metres, but no lava activity was reported at that altitude.

The heaviest flow was descending on Piano Provenzana, a popular area for tourists to take mountain walks in summer and for skiing and other activities in the winter.

The flow pushed over ski-lift pylons, knocked down power lines and swallowed a ski-school hut before surrounding an empty mountain hotel and lodge. Officials said no one was injured.

Etna is almost constantly rumbling, but has not produced any serious activity since a series of eruptions in July and August last year, which experts described as one of the most erratic and complex displays in 300 years.

It's last major eruption was in 1992.