Mount Etna comes back to life with brief eruption

[January 13, 2011]  ROME (AP) -- Italy's Mount Etna has come back to life with a brief eruption that sent lava down its slopes and a cloud of ash into the sky, forcing the overnight closure of a nearby airport.

The volcanology institute in Catania, eastern Sicily, said Thursday that a two-hour eruption overnight sent a little stream of lava down the eastern slope of the mountain. Nobody was injured.

The volcano also spewed out ash, which rained down and forced Catania's Fontanarossa airport to shut down overnight, canceling or diverting a few domestic flights.

Officials said the airport reopened early Thursday.

Etna is Europe's most active volcano. Its last major eruption was in 1992.

[Associated Press]

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