The inhabitants of the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma were in for a shock on Sunday (September 19) as there was a volcano eruption. Lava went shooting into the air and streaming in rivers towards the two villages from the Cumbre Vieja national park in the south of the island.
According to a Reuters report, the infirm and some of the farm animals were moved out before the eruption from nearby villages. After two hours passed with the lava edging down the hillside, the municipality authorities issued orders for evacuation of four villages. These included El Paso and Los Llanos de Aridane.
In the night the visual footage showed lava fountains shooting hundreds of metres into the sky while at least three orange rivers of molten rock poured down the hill. One such stream – several hundreds metres long and tens of metres wide – engulfed scattered houses in El Paso.
Isabel Fuentes talking to the media said: "When the volcano erupted today, I was scared. For journalists it is something spectacular, for us it is a tragedy. I think the lava has reached some relatives' houses. I was 5 years old when the volcano last erupted (in 1971). You never get over a volcanic eruption.
President of the Canary Islands Angel Victor Torres addressing the press last night said that 5,000 people had been evacuated and no injuries had been reported so far.
Sharing details of the eruption Torres said: "It is not foreseeable that anyone else will have to be evacuated. The lava is moving towards the coast and the damage will be material. According to experts there are about 17-20 million cubic meters of lava.”
Air traffic has not been affected and flights to and from the Canaries are continuing as normal.
Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez arrived at La Palma late yesterday night to discuss the eruption issue with the islands’ Government. “We have all the resources (to deal with the eruption) and all the troops, the citizens can rest easy," he said.
Doctor of Volcanology at the Spanish Geographical Institute Stavros Meletlidis, said the eruption had torn five holes in the hillside and that he could not be sure how long it would last. "We have to measure the lava every day and that will help us to work it out."
La Palma had been on high alert after more than 22,000 tremors were reported in the space of a week in Cumbre Vieja, a chain of volcanoes that last had a major eruption in 1971 and is one of the most active volcanic regions in the Canaries.
