Volcano Erupts on Spain's Canary Island, Population Evacuated

A volcano erupted on Sunday on the La Palma Canary Island. As a result of the eruption in the Cumbre Vieja national park in the south of the island huge fountains of lava and clouds of smoke and ash were released. No fatalities have been reported so far.

Local authorities had already initiated the evacuation of people and some farm animals from the surrounding villages, Reuters reported. Immediately after the eruption, the municipality urged local residents in a statement to "exercise extreme caution", and stay away from the area and off the roads. The inhabitants of nearby villages were told to go to one of five centres to be evacuated, and soldiers were deployed to help.

One black lava flow with a burning tip was sliding toward some houses in the village of El Paso. Mayor Sergio Rodríguez said 300 people in immediate danger had been evacuated from their homes and sent to the El Paso soccer field. Roads were closed due to the explosion and authorities urged the curious not to approach the area. Spanish television showed fountains of lava shooting into the sky, and plumes of smoke could be seen from across the island. There had been more than 22,000 tremors this week in the Cumbre Vieja area, a chain of volcanoes that last had a major eruption back in 1971 and is one of the most active volcanic regions in the Canaries. Then one man was killed as he was taking photographs near the lava flows, but no property was damaged. La Palma, with a population of 85,000, is one of eight islands in Spain’s Canary Islands archipelago off Africa’s western coast/Europost