Ash from Monserrat volcano snaps Caribbean flights

Many flights around the Caribbean remained cancelled yesterday due to clouds of ash spewed into the skies by a volcanic eruption on the island of Montserrat, officials said.

"The continued ash hanging in the atmosphere presents a risk to planes and to the security of passengers," the police in the nearby island of Guadeloupe said in a statement.

Hundreds of tourists have been trapped on the French territory of Guadeloupe since the volcano erupted last Thursday, officials said.

But the airport in Guadeloupe, which lies just 80 km south of Montserrat, would remain closed until today, it said.

"The dispersion of these ashes will depend on weather conditions," it added in a statement, after fire engines were deployed late Friday to try and clear the airport's runways of a thick layer of ash.

Montserrat's Soufriere Hills volcano erupted last Thursday, sending a plume of ash 10 km high into the sky, the Montserrat Volcano Observatory on the British overseas territory said.

The ash has also forced LIAT, the region's biggest airline, to temporarily suspend flights in and out of the V.C. Bird International airport in nearby Antigua.