A major airport in Italy has reopened after Europe’s most active volcano erupted, spewing ash and smoke over swathes of the country’s east coast.
Flights were cancelled and travellers grounded after Sicily’s Mount Etna erupted at an altitude of about 2700 metres on Sunday night (Rome time), causing chaos at Catania airport just weeks after extreme heat waves and bushfires forced it to shut down operations.
Lava initially flowed from the 3300-metre volcano before dawn on Monday, before subsiding and spreading ash clouds across surrounding areas.
Italy’s most active volcano, Mount Etna, erupted on Sunday night.
“All arrivals and departures are therefore prohibited,” the airport said at the time, adding that “passengers are kindly requested to present themselves at the airport only after consulting their airline.”
The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology said volcanic activity has since stopped, but disruptions to Mediterranean holidaymakers continued, with the airport resuming operations on Tuesday.
The institute described the activity as “producing a fallout of ash in the southern sector of the volcano and beyond.”
Lava flows from the Mt Etna volcano as seen from Southeast Crater, in Nicolosi, Sicily.Credit: AP
Falling ash also affected road traffic in Sicily, where officials banned the use of bikes and motorcycles and enforced reduced vehicle speeds of below 30 kilometres an hour.
There had been some warning signs of volcanic activity, with observers at Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology capturing images of large vapour rings being emitted from the summit crater last week and recording increased seismic activity.
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