CATANIA, Sicily — Rivers of lava poured down Mt. Etna on Sunday, engulfing small buildings and threatening a mountain lodge after a series of earthquakes awakened Europe's highest and most active volcano.
Pine trees caught fire as the heat of the lava engulfed them, and the stench of sulfur filled the air as cracks opened up in the ground, witnesses said.
Civil protection officials in Catania, Sicily's second-largest city, surveyed the mountain by helicopter and were set to send water-carrying planes to fight the fires.
Catania's airport was shut until this morning after a thick blanket of volcanic ash fell on the runway.
The eruptions began early Sunday after a series of small earthquakes shook the eastern edge of Sicily and parts of mainland Italy.