WATCH Mount Etna erupt: Europe's largest volcano blows as tourists scramble to safety

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Mount Etna erupted on Monday (June 2) with a ginormous cloud of ash and triggered an avalanche of volcanic material that has ripped down the side of Europe's largest active volcano.

The massive eruption on the Italian island of Sicily sent visitors scrambling for safety as black smoke rose high above Catania, a metropolitan city with a population of more than 1 million people located near the base of the volcano.

An avalanche of hot lava blocks, ash, gas and other volcanic material called a pyroclastic flow began at around 11:20 AM local time. Footage from the eruption makes it look as if the volcano is splitting open from the top down as the ejected material races down the side of the volcano.

Scientists observing the volcano said that the latest eruptive activity likely started after a collapse of material in Mount Etna's South-East Crater, where the "explosive activity" has since become a lava fountain, according to an update at 12:00 PM local time from the Etnean Observatory, run by Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.

There were no reports of injuries at the time of publication, though some social media videos show tourists fleeing the volcano on foot.

"I spoke to the INGV (Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology), everything is normal and under control," Enrico Tarantino, the mayor of Sicily's Catania municipality, said in a statement, via the Independent. "There is no criticality, it is a phenomenon that repeats itself and, in light of the monitoring of the volcano, was already expected."

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Mount Enta has been erupting since Nov. 27, 2022, according to the Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program. At over 11,000 feet (3,350 meters) tall, Mount Etna is the tallest volcano in Europe.

The ash cloud from the latest eruption had risen up to around 21,300 feet (6,500 m), or 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) into the sky, according to an update from the Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in France at 12:00 PM local time. That rise meant the ash cloud was almost twice as high as the volcano itself.

The rest of the cloud is mostly composed of sulfur dioxide (SO₂). This gas, when released from a volcano, can mix with other gases and particles in the atmosphere to form a haze called volcanic smog (vog). Inhaling enough vog can cause respiratory problems and other health issues such as eye and skin irritation, according to USGS. However, officials in Italy haven't warned of any threats to the local population at the time of publication.

The eruption has stopped, according to an update at 4:56 PM local time from the Etnean Observatory.