La Palma In Spain's Canary Islands Evacuates 5,000 As Volcano Erupts

A volcano erupted on Sunday in La Palma, one of Spain’s Canary Islands.

What Happened: The volcano erupted at 3:24 pm local time (10:24 a.m. ET), as per the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute, which tracks the seismic activity, Reuters reported.

The local authorities and the institute have urged members of the public to stay away from the area.  

LIVE: Volcano erupts on La Palma in the Canary Islands https://t.co/d0dAcPTzmq

— Reuters (@Reuters) September 20, 2021

As per the report, which cited the island’s government, authorities had begun evacuating the infirm and farm animals from before the eruption at 3:15 p.m. in the sparsely populated Cabeza de Vaca area.

The municipality later ordered the evacuation of four villages as lava trickled down from the hillside from five fissures.

After dark, footage showed fountains of lava shooting hundreds of meters into the sky, and at least three incandescent orange rivers of molten rock pouring down the hill.

As per the Canary Islands President Angel Victor Torres, 5,000 people have been evacuated with no injuries reported so far.

Flights to and from the Canaries were continuing as normal, airport operator Aena said.

Why It Matters: La Palma felt more than 22,000 tremors in the past week in Cumbre Vieja, a chain of volcanoes that last had a major eruption in 1971 and is one of the most active volcanic regions in the Canaries.

The earliest recorded eruption in La Palma was in 1430, according to the Spanish National Geographical Institute (ING), as per Reuters.

For news coverage in French, Italian, or Spanish, check out Benzinga France, Benzinga Italia, or Benzinga España.

Photo: Courtesy of Darkimages08 via Wikimedia. For representation purposes only, not the actual volcano that erupted.