Tourists have been filmed running from Sicily's Mount Etna volcano as it spewed out fiery ash on Monday, local time.
Excursions are popular on Etna, which is some 3,300 metres high, with a surface area of 1,200 square kilometres.
Officials at the INGV said a pyroclastic flow— an avalanche of burning ash careening down the slopes at a fast pace and with high density — was "probably produced by a collapse of material from the northern flank of the South-East Crater".
Sicily's President Renato Schifani said lava flows emitted in the eruption had not passed the natural containment area, "and posed no danger to the population".
A red aviation warning was issued by the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre Toulouse. The warning was later downgraded to orange.
ABC NEWS provides around the clock coverage of news events as they break in Australia and abroad. It's news when you want it, from Australia's most trusted news organisation.
For more from ABC NEWS, click here: https://ab.co/2kxYCZY
Watch more ABC NEWS content ad-free on ABC iview: https://ab.co/2OB7Mk1
Go deeper on our ABC NEWS In-depth channel: https://ab.co/2lNeBn2
Like ABC NEWS on Facebook: http://facebook.com/abcnews.au
Follow ABC NEWS on Instagram: http://instagram.com/abcnews_au
Follow ABC NEWS on X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/abcnews
Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated.
#ABCNEWS #ABCNEWSAustralia
--
Support podtube.me continuity as a free service. Become a Patreon or make an one-time donation
--
Video at Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGlELOxggvM