Catania Airport, in the east of the Italian island of Sicily, reopened this Monday after being temporarily closed on Sunday due to a new eruption of Mount Etna, airport manager Sac said.
The operator said flights would resume “with initial restrictions” and warned of the possibility of delays, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The volcano, the most active in Europe, erupted on Sunday, spewing ash over Catania, the largest city in eastern Sicily.
The operator justified the temporary suspension of flights by the eruption of the Mount Etna and “abundant amounts of volcanic ash that fell on the airport”, located about 60 kilometers south of the volcano.
The Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) said ash had fallen in Catania and at least one area on the habitable slopes of Mount Etna, the US news agency AP reported. No injuries were reported.
Etna, at 3,324 meters above sea level, is the highest active volcano in Europe and has erupted frequently over the past 500,000 years.
According to the INGV website, Mount Etna “has a very long eruptive history of more than half a million years, but only in the last hundred thousand years has the volcano assumed the conical shape that characterizes it today.”
In a bulletin released early Sunday evening, INGV said images from the CCTV network revealed “the existence of a lava flow emerging from the southeast crater.”
However, due to a storm, the crater was covered with clouds, which prevented “determining the position of the most advanced lava front.”
According to historical records, one of the most powerful eruptions of Mount Etna occurred in 1669 and claimed the lives of about 20,000 people.
Around 10 million passengers passed through Vincenzo Bellini International Airport, which serves eastern Sicily, one of Italy’s most popular tourist destinations, in 2022, according to French agency AFP.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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