Sharjah24 – AFP: A surge of lava destroyed around 100 homes on Spain's Canary Islands a day after a volcano erupted, forcing 5,500 people to leave the area, local authorities said on Monday.
The Cumbre Vieja erupted on Sunday afternoon, 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.
"We haven't had any loss of human life which is the best news," said Angel Victor Torres, regional head of the Atlantic archipelago, which lies off the coast of Morocco.
According to Involcan, the Canary Islands' volcanology institute, the lava flows were moving at about 700 metres per hour, and had a temperature of nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,830 degrees Fahrenheit).
Experts expect the lava to reach the coast at around 8:00 pm.
The eruption on this island of some 85,000 people, the first in 50 years, has caused significant damage with "around 100 homes destroyed", said Lorena Hernandez Labrador, a councillor in Los Llanos de Ariadne which lies northwest of the volcano.
Dramatic images on social media showed huge rivers of slow-moving lava creeping down the mountainside, pockets of flame erupting as it consumed trees and surged over trees and buildings caught in its path.
Describing the scene as "desolate", La Palma's top official Mariano Hernandez Zapata said the lava was "on average about six metres (20 feet) high".
"This tongue of lava is engulfing everything in its path. It's tragic to see how many homes have just gone up in smoke," he told Spain's public television.
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