Sicily’s Mount Etna erupted on Monday, producing an enormous ash cloud “several kilometers high.” 

The eruption began at 11:24 a.m. local time, according to reports. Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology warned of “almost continuous” explosions that were of “increasing intensity” caused by a section of Etna’s southeast crater crumbling.  Approximately half an hour later after it began, the organization reported that the vulnerable area had become a “lava fountain” due to the volcanic explosions.  

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Etna is Europe’s largest active volcano and has erupted at least once per year for the last several years.

Videos of the eruption circulated on social media, with several showing tourists running from the mountain as the gigantic ash cloud approached them. In one of the videos, people hiking the mountain fled as the eruption occurred, with the enormous ash cloud close behind. 

Giuseppe Panfallo, a guide with Go Etna, filmed his tour group huddled together with an enormous ash cloud in the distance.

“We were nearly grazed, look at this cloud here. We were two steps away and thank goodness we have a responsible guide with us,” said Giuseppe Panfallo, a tour guide with Go Etna, told CNN. “It arrived all at once, an immense smoke, immense, immense roar.”

Despite the close calls, there were no injuries to anyone in close proximity to the eruption, reported the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology Observatory. Later, Sicilian officials said that Etna’s eruption posed no “danger to the population,” CBS News reported.