Lava pouring from Mount Etna was threatening to overrun a ski resort last night before heading towards a heavily populated Sicilian mountain town.

Frantic packing up
A surge in activity in Europe's most active volcano resulted in a "front" created from three flows, heading towards Rifugio Sapienza, a ski village built in the 1950s, 6200ft up the southern flank of the 10,860ft peak.Owners of small businesses spent yesterday hastily removing food, equipment, furnishings, and souvenirs

The village was to open on Dec 8 for the season. Cable cars and their stations have been dismantled. Local guides said the lava spilling from new craters on the volcano was "well sustained" and moving steadily down the steep hillside. Last night the flow was about 400 yards from the ski village, and travelling at up to 24 yards an hour. The spectacle has been heightened by the lava being surrounded by snow on the higher slopes - creating an effect which one witness described as "like blood pouring from a gash in the volcano."

New flows and new threats
Etna has been spewing molten lava, ash and rock from new openings high on its slopes for weeks. Initial flows soon died down but the volcano continued to pour out ash amid a series of loud booms and earth tremors. At the weekend, new flows were found to be advancing quickly only about half a mile above the Rifugio Sapienza. Below it, the town of Nicolosi is also under threat.

Salvatore Moschetto, the mayor of Nicolosi, whose council administers Rifugio Sapienza, said he was "fearing the worst" for the resort, which he said provided a livelihood for 500 families. He gave warning that if the eruption continued Nicolosi itself could be seriously threatened. "Things at the Sapienza are looking grim," he said as he oversaw frantic attempts using bulldozers to create an earth barrier 1,500ft long and 50ft high in an attempt to divert the lava flow.

Lava barriers set up
"There is a risk that this ski village will be flattened," he added. "We must do all we can to stop that." Emergency workers have been covering buildings with earth and sand in the hope that the lava may pass them over."It's a very violent eruption, and one that is behaving strangely, with sudden bursts that are very worrying," said the mayor.

Italy's Civil Protection authority tried to keep local residents calm by assuring them that the barrier would divert most of the lava from the village. A spokesman said the flow would probably not destroy the village, but only "graze" it as it did during another eruption in the summer of last year. The authorities said the lava posed no risk so far to built-up areas, but said the situation could change today.

October double eruption
On 29th October the slopes of Mount Etna, Europe's biggest active volcano, were engulfed by lava yesterday as the mountain erupted on two sides simultaneously for the first time in decades.

On the north-east slope a fracture two thirds of a mile long opened up near Piano Provenzana, a skiing base at 7,000ft. A village, which included two hotels, two restaurants, several ski hire firms, a dozen souvenir shops and a ski school, was evacuated at the weekend and yesterday was almost completely swallowed up by lava.

The flow was up to 400 yards wide and 20 feet high. One stream had come more than 2,000 feet down the mountain by yesterday afternoon, heading along a road towards the town of Linguaglossa, the baroque home of 5,500 people. 40 bulldozers were brought in to build dykes to protect the town, but the clouds of lava dust were making it difficult to realise how much lava was flowing and where. Both eruptions have been marked by spectacular lava fountains and experts said it was the first time in living memory that Etna had erupted on two separate fronts simultaneously.

Italian scientists said the level of volcanic activity was still "very intense" and a mushroom cloud of smoke hovered ominously over the crater. Officials have called for calm and insisted that the towns on the mountain's slopes are safe.

[Source: Telegraph.co.uk, Images: Reuters]

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