Lava from Spanish volcano heads toward sea; no injuries

LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Spain (AP) — Lava continued to flow slowly from a volcano that erupted in Spain’s Canary Islands off northwest Africa, but the head of the regional government said Monday he expects no injuries to people in the area after about 5,000 were evacuated.

Lava was flowing on the island of La Palma toward the sea, moving at 700 meters (2,300 feet) per hour, according to the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute.

The lava was moving in two streams through a mostly unpopulated area, Canary Islands government chief Ángel Víctor Torres told SER radio. Around 100 houses were destroyed, private Spanish news agency Europa Press reported.

“We’re not expecting any other eruption,” Torres said, adding that air traffic in the area was not affected.

“There will be considerable material damage,” he said. “We hope there won’t be any personal injuries.”

No further evacuations were expected, officials said.

“The lava probably won’t take any lives but it will destroy everything it encounters,” Nemesio Pérez, scientific coordinator at the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute, told SER.

The eruption opened two fissures, about 200 meters (650 feet) apart. Officials said the lava streams would likely merge before reaching the sea.

Aerial footage showed the lava cutting a black swathe through the sparsely populated countryside.

The lava crept into the town of Los Llanos de Aridane, which lies close to the volcano. Town Mayor Noelia García said people had been evacuated from houses all the way down to the shoreline.

Mariano Hernández, head of the island's government, described the scene in the area affected by the lava as “bleak.”

He said a wall of lava 6 meters (20 feet) high “is consuming houses, infrastructure, crops in...