Europe's most active Volcano, Mount Etna, has erupted this week burping smoke and ashes into the sky. However, Italian authorities confirmed that it did not cause any injuries or threats to nearby villages.
Mount Etna stands tall in the Italian island of Sicily at 3,350m height. The Central Emergency Department of Italy said in the towns of Linguaglossa, Fornazzo and Milo at the foot of volcano are kept under watch. The Catania airport was forced to close as volcano ash rose more than a kilometer into the air, the National Associated Press Agency Ansa stated.
The municipality squads and the residents on Wednesday cleaned up a Sicilian village near Mount Etna, AP reported.
The head of the INGV National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology in the nearby city of Catania, Stefano Branca, told Italian news agency AGI that latest eruption was not a worrying one. "We've seen worse," she said as she estimated that the activity began late on Tuesday afternoon.
However, residents in the area told AP that the eruption felt unusual as big chunks of volcanic stones covered the area, not just ash. "It was a rain of stones. Something I never saw in my entire life," said Letizia Olivieri, a Pedara resident.