Three more towns on the Spanish island of La Palma were evacuated today as a volcanic eruption that has already destroyed 400 buildings intensified.
Authorities on the Spanish island of La Palma ordered the evacuation of the towns of Tajuya, Tacande de Abajo and the part of Tacande de Arriba that had not already been evacuated due to a volcanic eruption.
Emergency services had initially told residents to stay indoors to avoid the dense cloud of ash and lava fragments being carried through the air but moved to an evacuation due to the heightened risk from explosions.
Firefighters were today forced to retreat as a new vent opened up in the flank of the volcano as airlines cancelled flights because of huge clouds of gas and ash.
Since erupting on Sunday, the Cumbre Vieja volcano has spewed out thousands of tons of lava, destroyed hundreds of houses and forced the evacuation of thousands of people.
No serious injuries or fatalities have been reported but some 15 per cent of the island's economically crucial banana crop could be at risk, jeopardising thousands of jobs.
Loud bangs unnerved local people and sent shockwaves echoing across the hillsides today as firefighters pulled out of clean-up work in the town of Todoque as a new vent opened up in the flank of the volcano and videos shared on social media showed a massive shockwave emanating out from the eruption site.
'The volcano is in a newly explosive phase...Firefighters will not operate anymore today,' tweeted the Tenerife fire service, which has been deployed to help on La Palma.
Residents of Tajuya, Tacande de Abajo and parts of Tacande de Arriba were told to gather at the local football ground for evacuation.
The explosions around the volcano's mouth hurled molten rock and ash over a wide expanse, and emergency services pulled back from the area.
The lava has destroyed almost 400 buildings on La Palma, including many homes, on the western side of the island of 85,000 people, a European Union monitoring programme said. It said the lava stretches more than 440 acres and has blocked nine miles of roads.
Local Canary Island carrier Binter said on Friday it had cancelled all flights to La Palma due to the volcano eruption, while Spanish airline Iberia cancelled its only flight scheduled for the day, and another local airline, Canary fly, also suspended its operations.
Binter said in a statement that it was forced to halt its operations to and from La Palma as the ash cloud produced by the volcano had worsened considerably in the last few hours.
The blasts are sending ash almost 15,000ft into the air, the Guardia Civil police force said in a tweet. Local authorities advised people to protect themselves from the ash with face masks.
Two rivers of lava continued to slide slowly down the hillside, but experts doubting whether they would cover the remaining mile to the sea.
Both are at least 33ft high at their leading edge and are destroying houses, farmland and infrastructure in their path. Scientists say the lava flows could last for weeks or months.
Meanwhile a cloud of toxic gas and ash extends more than 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) into the sky, the Canaries volcanology institute said on Thursday.
It has begun to drift northeast toward the Mediterranean and Spanish mainland, the AEMET national weather agency said. Airspace above the island remains open apart from two small areas near the eruption site.
The local airline, which had initially only cancelled night flights, said it did not have a time frame to resume operations. The government of La Palma said officials had recorded 1,130 tremors in the area over the past week as the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge shook with blasts of molten lava.
