Etna lava nears tourist complex

Workers try to cool the lava threatening the tourist complex

MOUNT ETNA, Sicily -- Red-hot lava from Mount Etna has moved to within 50 metres of a tourist complex as emergency teams battle to reinforce barriers around the site.

The area has been sealed off by Italian civil protection officials after the lava earlier covered a cable car station near the complex and overran some of the barriers protecting it.

The Rifugio Sapienza complex includes shops, restaurants, a hostel and a scientific monitoring station and is a popular departure point for trips up the mountain.

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The river of lava threatening the complex had swollen to 150 metres (495 feet) wide by Tuesday, said Salvatore Nunnari, of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology, The Associated Press reported.

The temperature of the lava is between 1,050 and 1,090 degrees C (1,922 F and 1,994 F), according to vulcanologists.

The cable car's base station caught fire on Monday night as the lava crept down the mountain toward Rifugio Sapienza. On the way, it consumed a building used by local ski instructors to store equipment.

The station is about five kilometres (3.1 miles) above Rifugio Sapienza and by Tuesday the lava had overrun two of walls of earth and rock erected to protect the complex and was 50 metres (165 feet) away.

Emergency crews and army bulldozers tried to reinforce the last wall still standing and used water cannon to douse the molten lava to cool it off, said AP.

"The probability of saving the area is less and less," said Franco Barberi, head of the Civil Protection Agency. "The situation is still risky, it's still unstable. I hope tonight will be calmer than the one before."

Barberi said journalists and photographers covering the eruption would not be allowed to travel to the complex with their own vehicles.

Last week the lava flow from Europe's most active volcano destroyed the resort's car parking facilities and three central pylons of the ski lift.

Etna has been spewing molten lava, ash and rock from fractures on its southern slope for the last two weeks, forcing a state of emergency in the surrounding area.

Despite the danger, the airport in the city of Catania, closed for a few hours on Monday, was kept open.

The lava flow illuminates the ski resort of Rifugio Sapienza

Thunderous booms have accompanied Etna's unpredictable eruptions over the last two weeks, some spurts of lava reaching hundreds of yards in height.

The lava flow has been threatening Rifugio Sapienza for the last few days.

A convoy of military bulldozers was sent into the area last week to help out exhausted workers building earth barriers around the complex. The river of lava threatening the village of Nicolosi, on the slopes of the mountain, appears to have stopped advancing, said AP.

Over the past few days it has settled at about two and a half miles from the town, home to about 6,000 people.

The agriculture and tourism industries have been severely damaged in the latest eruption. The government has earmarked about $8 million for recovery projects in the area but locals are pressing for more, said AP Etna's last major eruption was in 1992. The volcano, which towers 10,860 feet above Sicily, comes to life every few months.