(ANSA) - MADRID, OCTOBER 12 - Between 700 and 800 people have been ordered to abandon their homes due to the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano in La Palma.
This was announced in a press conference by those responsible for the emergency plan created for this natural disaster.
The exact figure cannot be provided at this time because it is possible that some have already been removed previously, they added.
The decision was made as a precaution due to the fact that a new lava flow is advancing "inexorably", even if "slowly", towards a hitherto spared inhabited area, explained the technical director of the emergency plan, Miguel Ángel Morcuende. The preventive evacuation order, he added, allows those concerned to have "sufficient time" to remove documents and valuables from homes at risk.
Morcuende also specified that the displaced areas are now other than those for which the population was ordered yesterday to close themselves at home due to the possible presence of harmful gases in the air. This confinement measure, decreed for about 3,500 people, was then abolished this morning due to thefavorable evolution of air quality. (HANDLE).
