One dead as tourists flee in panic after volcano erupts on Italian island of Stromboli

One person is dead and tourists have been forced to flee after a volcano erupted on the small Italian island of Stromboli.

One person has died after a volcano erupted on the small Italian island of Stromboli.

A huge plume of smoke filled the skies above the tiny Mediterranean island, sending red-hot rocks spilling from the mountain.

Emergency services rushed to the scene as the explosion started fires on the western side of the island.

Fire crews were being called in from nearby locations, and a Canadair plane was already in action, The Sun reported.

“We saw the explosion from the hotel. There was a loud roar,” said Michela Favorito, who works in a hotel near Fico Grande, on the east side of the island.

“We plugged our ears, and after this a cloud of ash swept over us. The whole sky is full of ash, a fairly large cloud,” she told Reuters.

Smoke billows from the volcano on the Italian island of Stromboli. Picture: ANSA VIA AP

Alana Elliot, 31, from London, was sunbathing with her finance and future bridesmaid on a nearby beach when she heard the thunderous boom.

She said the “big mushroom cloud looked like a nuke” and started to panic when staff on the quiet cove in Malfa started “running for their lives”.

The London lawyer said they had planned a tour around the volcano that day but had postponed it.

She fears people touring the volcano may have been seriously injured or worse.

“Then we heard a really loud boom as though thunder and lightning had struck right next to us and saw people running along the beach,” she said.

“You can see Stromboli from the bay, and there was a big mushroom cloud erupting — it looked like a nuke.

Some 30 tourists jumped into the sea out of fear after a series of volcanic eruptions on the Sicilian island of Stromboli. Picture: ANSA VIA AP

The eruption has reportedly killed a hiker. Picture: Mario Calabresi / Twitter account of @mariocalabresi / AFP

“A barman ran down and was speaking Italian to us.

“We thought he was saying, ‘Be calm, it’s OK’, but actually he was saying, ‘Get out of here — but be calm’.

“Staff were collecting our beach chairs, and instead of putting them in the usual spot, they were grabbing them and throwing them to one side before running away.

“We realised it was a big deal when the locals started to freak out and were running for their lives.”

There are also reports the volcano is shooting out red-hot rocks called lapilli that are setting fire to cane breaks, local sources told Italy’s ANSA newsagency.

“A huge column of dense black smoke is coming out of the crater,” an eyewitness told the publication.

Thick smoke spills from the island. Picture: Fiona Carter / Twitter account of @FionaCarter / AFP

Fiona Carter, a British tourist on the island of Panarea, some 27km from Stromboli, heard the blast.

“We turned around to see a mushroom cloud coming from Stromboli. Everyone was in shock. Then red-hot lava started running down the mountain towards the little village of Ginostra,” she told Reuters.

“The cloud got bigger, white and grey. It enveloped Ginostra and now the cloud has covered Stromboli entirely. Several boats set off for Stromboli.”

Tourists often climb to the 924-metre summit of the volcano and peer into its crater. Picture: Mario Calabresi / Twitter account of @mariocalabresi / AFP.

INGV expert Stefano Branca said there had been a “paroxysmal eruption” on the island when high-pressure magma explodes from a shallow, underground reservoir. “These are events of great intensity and quite rare,” he said.

Tourists often climb to the 924-metre summit of the volcano and peer into its crater, with small puffs of molten rock regularly blasted into the sky. It was not clear if anyone was on the crater at the time of the latest blast.

According to the geology.com website, Stromboli is one of the most active volcanoes on the planet and has been erupting almost continuously since 1932.

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission