Insane moment mount etna tourists run for their lives from volcanic ash

A terrifying clip of tourists fleeing from Mount Etna's explosion has emerged, after the volcano spewed ash into the sky above the Italian island. Italy's National Institute of

Geophysics and Volcanology has said the eruption commenced around 3.50am local time (2.50am BST), while volcanic tremors began around midnight local time. Now a harrowing video has surfaced,

showing people sprinting down the hillside while huge clouds of smoke billow into the sky around them. In total, around 50 tourists are spotted frantically running away from the ominous

sight of Mount Etna's explosions, except from a few brave souls who quickly stop to take a video of the scenes. The Italian research institute wrote in a statement: "Over the past

few hours, the activity flagged in the previous statement issued at 4.14am (3.14am BST) has carried on with strombolian explosions of growing intensity that, at the moment, are of strong

intensity and nearly continuous. "Over the past few hours, the falling of a little thin ash has been flagged in the Piano Vetore area." The eruption led to the Aviation Colour Code

being elevated to Red at 03:32 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), but it has since been downgraded to Orange, at 06:39 UTC. Pilots have been cautioned about the potential hazards of flying

through volcanic ash. Volcanic ash is hard and abrasive, and can rapidly cause significant wear to propellers and turbocompressor blades, and scratch cockpit windows, impairing visibility.

Before the eruption, volcanic tremors were gradually detected and increased from 22:00 UTC on June 1. Although no volcanic ash cloud was spotted in the initial satellite imagery, a cloud

primarily composed of water vapour and sulphur dioxide (SO2) was seen drifting southwest from the volcano. According to the Volcanic Discovery website, volcanic tremors were detected before

the eruption at around 10pm local time last night and peaked shortly before 1am this morning. Mount Etna, standing at approximately 3,400 metres tall and with a base measuring just under 100

miles, had its most recent significant eruption in February 2021.