The volcanic eruption on the small Canary Island of La Palma in the Atlantic had been announced for a long time. On Sunday, thousands of people were evacuated as a precaution, including vacationers.
Madrid / La Palma – On the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma, a volcano erupted on Sunday in the area of the Cumbre Vieja for the first time in 50 years.
At 3:12 p.m. local time (4:12 p.m. CEST) there were several violent explosions in the municipality of El Paso in the south of the island, reported the newspaper “El País”. Later, huge fountains of fire were seen on television shooting into the night sky.
Red alert
By late evening, at least seven chimneys were counted, i.e. different places where ash, smoke and lava were thrown into the air, reported the state television broadcaster RTVE. The authorities called the red alert of the volcanic emergency plan and began evacuations. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez canceled a planned trip to the USA and arrived on La Palma in the evening.
There were initially no reports of injuries. The outbreak lies in an unpopulated area of the island, which has a total of 83,000 inhabitants, reported the local television station Canarias7, citing the regional head of government of the Canaries, Ángel Víctor Torres.
5000 evacuated
Because of the approaching lava, which rolled downhill in the dark in the form of orange-glowing rivers towards the coast, around 5000 residents of the villages of El Paso, Llanos de Aridane and the seaside resort of Tazacorte on the west coast of the island were brought to safety. 500 of them were tourists. At first it was not known whether there were Germans among them. Several country houses went up in flames when they were reached by the lava, which was around 1000 degrees Celsius.
The fire brigade fought bush fires that were triggered by the volcanic eruption. The authorities called on the population to remain calm. The outbreak has so far not been particularly explosive. Onlookers were asked to leave the area so as not to obstruct evacuations.
Pack only the bare essentials
La Palma is located in the north-west of the Canaries, an archipelago in the Atlantic off the west coast of Africa. It is 85 kilometers from the more famous island of Tenerife and 57 kilometers from La Gomera.
The outbreak had been announced in the past few days by around 6,600 small and medium-sized earthquakes and a slight rise in the ground. The authorities had called on people near the volcanic area to prepare light luggage with their cell phones, important documents and any medicines they might need.
The last time there was a volcanic eruption on the youngest of the Canary Islands was 50 years ago when the Teneguía hurled lava into the air in 1971. There is no mass tourism on La Palma like on the better known islands of Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and Tenerife. dpa
