Europe’s largest active volcano erupted overnight, providing a dramatic display for people in the nearby town of Zafferano Etnea.
Balls of orange lava shooting into the air were visible in the distance behind the steeple at Zafferano Etnea’s Santa Maria della Provvidenza Church.
The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology-Etnean Observatory recorded gas bubbles with strong explosions heard all the way in Catania, 45 kilometres (28 miles) away.
Etna is the largest of Italy’s three active volcanoes which also include Stromboli, on the Sicilian island of the same name, and Mt. Vesuvius near Naples which last erupted in 1944.
