- CATANIA, Italy (Reuters)
- Rivers of boiling lava poured down Mount Etna Sunday, engulfing small
buildings and threatening a mountain lodge after a series of earthquakes
awakened Europe's highest and most active volcano.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Catania's airport was shut until Monday 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.
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- "The situation in Catania is completely under control
and our city is not threatened in any way," Umberto Scapagnini said.
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- The eruptions began in the early hours of Sunday, after
a series of small earthquakes shook the eastern edge of Sicily and parts
of mainland Italy.
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- 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 epicenter just one mile south-east of the center of
Etna's crater.
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- The volcano, Europe's highest at 10,900 feet, pumped
out huge dark clouds of ash and spurted streams of boiling magma 300 to
600 feet into the air.
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- 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.
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- Three tongues of lava were seen snaking down the mountain
from fissures at a height of around 7,545 feet to 8,200 feet. Cracks were
also found at about 4,900 feet but no lava activity was reported at that
altitude.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- It's last major eruption was in 1992.
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