Rumbling explosions of lava atop Mount Etna create fireworks over city, video shows

Italy’s Mount Etna began erupting in spectacular fashion Thursday, turning the night sky red with spewing lava and flaming debris.

The fireworks began around 3 a.m. May 30, with loud bursts of lava spewing “from new fissure vents” on the northeast and southeast sides of the volcano, according to VolcanoDiscovery.com.

And the activity “appears to be intensifying,” reported The Watchers, with “large lava flows...resulting in amazing night-time imagery.”

The 10,900-foot volcano towers over the large port city of Catania, Sicily, and “has one of the world’s longest documented records of historical volcanism, dating back to 1500 BCE,” according to the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program.

Eugenio Privitera, of the Catania National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, told The Express that Catania’s populace don’t appear to be in danger from the eruption.

“We are starting a new eruptive phase of Etna which could end soon or last months,” The Express quoted him saying. “The phenomena are all confined to the summit area of the volcano and do not constitute a danger to inhabited centers and people, but the flow of tourists in the area must be controlled for their safety.”