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Lava flows threaten the center of the municipality of La Laguna
Photo: Saul Santos / AP
The volcano, which has been spewing lava and ash for over a month, has again put hundreds to flee on the Canary Island of La Palma.
The Pevolca Emergency Committee ordered the evacuation of several villages in the municipalities of Tazacorte and Los Llanos de Aridane during the night.
According to media reports, around 500 people were affected.
Since the eruption of the volcano in the south of the Spanish island off the west coast of Africa, around 7,500 people have had to be brought to safety.
That is almost ten percent of all almost 85,000 residents of La Palma.
Many of them will never be able to return to their houses destroyed and buried by the lava.
Since the volcano on the Cumbre Vieja mountain range became active again on September 19 for the first time in 50 years, the lava has already destroyed 2,185 buildings, according to the European Earth observation system Copernicus.
Accordingly, the area covered by a meter-thick layer of lava increased by more than 54 hectares to a total of over 866 hectares in the past 48 hours.
That corresponds to the size of around 1200 soccer fields.
A hot mass of 1270 degrees comes close to the town center
The lava flows meanwhile continue to threaten the center of the municipality of La Laguna.
The hot mass of up to 1270 degrees came very close to the town center on its way to the sea.
The 1650 residents of La Laguna were not in danger, because they had already been evacuated from their homes last week.
Depending on the course, the lava could destroy hundreds of houses as well as an old church and the community's school, as Pevolca boss Miguel Ángel Morcuende explained.
But there is still reason to hope that the lava south of La Laguna will flow past the town center, he emphasized.
A gas station and a supermarket as well as numerous houses outside the village have already been covered by the lava.
This can also be seen on video recordings published by the Canary Islands Volcanological Institute on Twitter.
Flight operations on the island also had to be interrupted several times.
On Monday this was resumed after a two-day break.
However, there were many delays on Tuesday due to the difficult conditions.
The ashes from the volcano in particular are dangerous for the planes.
bam / dpa
