Lava crawls towards Etna village

Lava is flowing from five fissures

NICOLOSI, Sicily -- Thick rivers of lava crawled down the sides of Mount Etna towards a village as Europe's most active volcano rumbled for a third straight day.

Five fissures have now opened up in the mountain on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and flowing lava has reached to within five km (three miles) of Nicolosi, Reuters news agency reported.

The lava has moved more than one km in the past three days but on Saturday had slowed to about five metres (yards) an hour from more than twenty on Thursday and Friday.

A marine helicopter dropped buckets of water on Saturday over parts of Mount Etna in an attempt to prevent fires from being sparked by the lava

Security forces were preparing mud barricades to try to divert the magma flow around an empty tourist hostel above the village of Nicolosi and evacuate residents from the village on the mountain's southern slopes if necessary.

"The inhabitants of Nicolosi are calm, for now there is no danger," the head of Italy's civil protection agency, Franco Barberi, told Reuters.

"When it matters, we will do everything that needs to be done," he said, adding that evacuation plans were ready.

Hundreds of people have travelled to Etna to watch the eruption but officials have urged them to stay away from the lava.

A state of emergency was declared in the area on Thursday.

Television pictures showed Etna spitting 100-metre (330-foot) streams of orange lava from several blast holes.

Smoke and ash billowed 500 metres above the mountain top.

The lava has damaged several chairlifts dotted over the volcano, which is also a popular ski resort. Tourism representatives have said the magma is so hot that it is unlikely any snow will settle when winter comes.

The last time Etna posed a threat was in 1992 when lava streams headed towards Zafferana, a town of 7,000 people on Etna's lower slopes.

The Italian military had to use controlled explosions to divert the flow.