by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 7:15 PM ET, Tue June 3, 2025
Italy’s Mount Etna experienced its largest eruption since 2014 yesterday, sending tourists fleeing for safety.
The massive eruption, which began around 10 a.m., triggered a plume of hot gasses, ash and rock that was several kilometers high, according to Italian officials and reported by CNN.
In the moments after the eruption, long lines of tourists who were visiting the volcano in eastern Sicily can be seen making their way downhill. Nobody was injured and all tourists and other individuals on the volcano safely left the scene.
It's commonplace for tourists to be walking around the top of the volcano. About one dozen tour operators bring visitors to Mount Etna, according to the Sicilian Civil Protection Agency and reported by CNN.
One tour company was visiting the Sicilian volcano with 40 people when the event occurred. Giuseppe Panfallo, a guide with Go Etna told CNN that the eruption "arrived all at once, an immense smoke, immense, immense roar."
The event was over by late evening in Italy and the lava flows triggered by the eruption had begun cooling. ”Sporadic bursts of ash dispersed near the summit of the volcano, with the tremor having fallen “to low values,” the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology Observatory reported.
Mount Etna is the most active volcano in Europe and also one of the most active worldwide. However, there's no danger at the moment to people in the area, according to president of the Sicilian Region, Renato Schifani.
About 1.5 million climb Mount Etna each year.
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