Authorities have evacuated over 5,000 people from villages in the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma as lava spews from an erupting volcano.
Mayor Sergio Rodriguez told TVE radio station on Monday that the 15-meter high lava flow has already swallowed 20 houses in the village of El Paso and sections of roads. He added that it is now spreading through the neighboring village of Los Llanos de Aridane where hundreds of houses are at risk,.
Since erupting on Sunday afternoon, the volcano has shot lava up hundreds meters into the air and poured flows of molten rock towards the Atlantic Ocean over a sparsely populated area of La Palma, the most northwestern island in the Canaries archipelago.
Local authorities have evacuated about 5,000 people from four villages, including El Paso and Los Llanos de Aridane.
However, no further evacuations are likely to be necessary, Canary Islands regional president Angel Victor Torres said on Monday morning.
