While thousands flee as lava streams destroy homes, hundreds of tourists evacuated
The Canary Islands are safe to visit and a volcano eruption there is a “wonderful show”, Spanish Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said on Monday, just hours after 5,000 people, including hundreds of tourists, had to be evacuated.
The volcano – the archipelago’s first eruption in 50 years – blew on Sunday, spouting lava hundreds of metres into the air, engulfing houses and sending molten rock towards the Atlantic Ocean across a sparsely populated area of La Palma, the most northwestern island in the archipelago. Lava destroyed atleast 100 houses.
“The island is open,” Maroto told Canal Sur radio, calling the eruption “a wonderful show”.
“There are no restrictions on going to the island … on the contrary, we’re passing on the information so tourists know they can travel to the island and enjoy something unusual, see it for themselves,” she said.
Many tourists at the airport disagreed with Maroto. “We want to leave as fast as possible,” said Wienard, a 55-year- old social worker from Salzburg.
Maroto’s remarks drew immediate criticism from Teodoro Garcia Egea, secretary general of the opposition People’s Party, who posted an article on Twitter quoting the minister and asked: “Can someone confirm the minister said that while hundreds of people are losing everything they have?”
The flow of molten rock was expected to reach the coast later on Monday evening, potentially triggering more explosions, and the volcano itself would remain active for days.
About 360 tourists were evacuated from a resort in La Palma following the eruption and taken to the nearby island of Tenerife by boat on Monday, a spokesperson for ferry operator Fred Olsen said.
Another 180 tourists could be evacuated from La Palma later in the day, the spokesperson added.
No fatalities or injuries have been reported but drone footage captured two tongues of black lava cutting a devastating swathe through the landscape as they advanced down the volcano’s western flank towards the sea.
A Reuters witness saw the flow of molten rock slowly tear its way through a house in the village of Los Campitos, igniting the interior and sending flames through the windows onto the roof.
Authorities have not given an updated tally of how many properties have been destroyed since the head of La Palma’s local government gave an estimate of 100 early on Monday.
Regional leader Angel Victor Torres said the damage would be substantial.
Airspace around the Canaries remained open with no visibility problems, the Enaire civil air authority said after a local airline cancelled four flights between islands.
“It was horrible,” said Eva, a 53-year old tourist from Austria. “We felt the earthquake, it started in the morning … Then at 3 in the afternoon the lady from our house came and said you have to pack everything and leave quickly.”
“We’re happy to go home now,” she said at the airport, boarding a flight back home after cutting her trip short.
La Palma had been on high alert after thousands of tremors were reported over a week in Cumbre Vieja, which belongs to a chain of volcanoes that last had a major eruption in 1971 and is one of the Canaries’ most active volcanic regions. (Reuters)