Eruptions subside at Sicily's Mount Etna

Ash and steam rise from the Mount Etna volcano in 2007. The eruptions that have shaken the Mount Etna volcano on the southern Italian island of Sicily have subsided, experts said Sunday at the Palermo Geophysics and Volcanology Institute.

The eruptions that have shaken the Mount Etna volcano on the southern Italian island of Sicily have subsided, experts said Sunday at the Palermo Geophysics and Volcanology Institute.

The eruptions, which started Saturday afternoon, died away towards 9:30 p.m. (1930 GMT) the same evening.

"Seismic activity has returned to normal," a technician told AFP.

The eruption, accompanied by streams of lava, had started between 3 and 4:00 p.m. local time on the volcano's southeast crater.

The last eruption of Mount Etna was in November last year, two months after another eruption forced a temporary closure of nearby Catania airport due to flying lava and clouds of ash.

The last truly spectacular eruption was in the summer of 2001.

Š 2008 AFP

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