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Lava swallows 100 homes as Canary Islands volcano erupts

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LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, SPAIN: A surge of lava destroyed around 100 homes on Spain's Canary Islands a day after a volcano erupted, forcing 5,000 people to leave the area, local authorities said yesterday.

The Cumbre Vieja erupted around 3pm on Sunday (9pm, Singapore time), sending vast plumes of thick black smoke into the sky and belching molten lava that oozed down the mountainside on the island of La Palma.

"Right now, we have evacuated 5,000 people and around 100 homes have been destroyed," said Ms Lorena Hernandez Labrador, a councillor in Los Llanos de Ariadne, a town several kilometres from the volcano.

Images on Twitter showed slow-moving lava creeping down the mountainside, pockets of flame erupting as it rumbled ever closer towards a group of homes standing just metres away.

Elsewhere, piles of glowing lava surged onto the patio of a house.

Describing the scene as "desolate", La Palma's top official Mariano Hernandez Zapata said the lava was "on average about six metres high". "This tongue of lava is engulfing everything in its path. It is tragic to see how many homes have just gone up in smoke," he added.

It also consumed a primary school where 25 children were enrolled, the headmistress told Cadena Ser radio.

Ms Yahaira Garcia, 34, who runs a winery in the foothills of the volcano, decided to leave just before the eruption after a night of quakes.

"My house shook so much it felt like it was going to collapse," she said, saying she had rushed over to her parents' house to help them get out.

"We took four goats, two pigs, 20 chickens, 10 rabbits, four dogs and a turtle," she said. "The images are really disturbing. Now they are saying the volcano could continue erupting for three months." - AFP

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