Lava from volcano on Spain's La Palma forces 800 to evacuate
ABC News
Hundreds of people on La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands are fearing for their homes and property after a new lava stream from an erupting volcano threatened to engulf another neighborhood on its way toward the Atlantic Ocean
LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Canary Islands -- Hundreds of people on La Palma in Spain's Canary Islands woke up Wednesday fearing for their homes and property after a new river of lava from an erupting volcano threatened to engulf another neighborhood on its way toward the Atlantic Ocean.
Island authorities ordered the evacuation of around 800 people from the coastal town of Los Llanos de Aridane on Tuesday after the lava took a new course and put their homes in its probable path of destruction.
Around 6,000 people were immediately removed from the area in the hours after the initial Sept. 19 volcanic eruption, when their homes and farms were directly below the path of the volcano's first lava stream.
No new mass evacuations had been necessary in the following three weeks. But on Tuesday, volcano scientists advising authorities found that a new lava flow to the north of the main river of molten rock had branched off and was heading toward an inhabited area outside what had previously been the evacuation zone.
