On the Spanish Canary Island "La Palma" a volcano erupted on Sunday.
There was a violent explosion in the south of the island.
Madrid / El Paso - Thousands of small earthquakes and a slight uplift had already suggested it.
Now the fears on the Spanish holiday island have come true: On Sunday a volcano erupted in the area of the Cumbre Vieja.
The largest daily newspaper in Spain
El País
reports of a violent explosion in the municipality of El Paso, in the south of the island.
Apparently a lava flow was forming and moving along the slope towards some houses.
Pictures on social media show a huge cloud of gray ash.
It is still uncertain how long the eruption will last.
Fortunately, the area around the volcano is relatively sparsely populated, and there were initially no indications of injuries.
Around 300 people
were evacuated on Sunday evening
, according to the
Diario de Canarias
newspaper
.
It is not yet clear in which direction the lava flow will flow.
Some fires are said to have broken out nearby.
The authorities call on the population to remain calm.
Almost eleven million cubic meters of magma: volcano erupted on the holiday island of La Palma
The region had already declared the highest level of alert for the volcano on Wednesday.
Between Saturday last week and Wednesday there had been several earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.4.
This is related to the displacement of almost eleven million cubic meters of magma inside the volcano, according to the Canary Islands Volcanological Institute, according to afp.
At first there was apparently no evacuation of the region.
People in the areas around the volcano were asked to prepare light luggage with their cell phones, important documents and any medicines they might need.
First of all, the further development should be awaited.
For the first time in 50 years: volcanic eruption on Canary Island La Palma - consequences still unclear
Only the older residents of the Canary Islands remember the last time a volcano in the Cumbre Vieja volcano chain haunted lava: that was fifty years ago. For three weeks the Teneguía hurled lava into the air. What hit the region harder than the volcanic eruption itself was the media hype all around. Many tourists avoided the island after the explosion. Mass tourism such as on the islands of Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and Tenerife does not exist on La Palma anyway. With 83,000 inhabitants, the island is comparatively sparsely populated. (vs)
