SICILY, Italy — Italy is one of the most popular overseas travel spots for US tourists, and on Monday, many were sent running after Mount Etna erupted.
Watch as tourists run from Mount Etna eruption
Courtesy: @aurelienpouzin/ X
High-temperature gases, ash, and rock were sent into the air. Scientists estimate it spewed 21,000 feet into the air.
Tourists in Sicily were forced to run or take cover, and people from miles away heard explosions.
The owner of one tour company tells CNN they had 40 people on the volcano when it erupted.
Giuseppe Panfallo, a guide with Go Etna, filmed his tour group huddled together with an enormous ash cloud in the distance. “We were nearly grazed, look at this cloud here. We were two steps away, and thank goodness we have a responsible guide with us. '
The volcano gets about 1.5 million visitors a year, some go as close as they can to the summit.
People who live in the area are quite used to these eruptions; there have been 15 so far this year, but according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology Observatory, there hasn't been an eruption like this since 2014.
containing a lethal mixture of high-temperature gases, lava grains, volcanic ash, and rock fragments of various sizes that rapidly descends down the slopes of the volcano.”
There is no word on any injuries.