Watch: Tourists flee as Mt Etna erupts
Red alert issued for aviation but Catania airport remains open
Updated 8.15pm
A powerful explosion on Sicily's Mount Etna sent tourists fleeing on Monday, but there were no immediate reports of anyone having been injured.
The explosion of Europe's most active volcano happened just after midday, spewing debris and smoke high into the air and dangerous pyroclastic flows down the mountain.
The president of the region of Sicily, Renato Schifani, said experts had assured him there was "no danger for the population", with the flow not having passed the Valley of the Lions, an area frequented by tourists.
The smoke could also be seen from Malta. Photographer Daniel Cilia captured the towering eruption plume from Naxxar almost an hour an half after the event.
"The partial collapse of the Southeast Crater, which generated an impressive eruptive cloud several kilometers high and a pyroclastic flow, is a phenomenon that we follow with extreme caution," Schifani said.
The head of the regional civil protection unit, Salvo Cocina, recommended that tourists avoid the area "in consideration of the potential evolution of the phenomenon".
Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology had a few hours previously noted a series of strombolian explosions of growing intensity.
A red alert issued for aviation authorities said the height of the volcanic cloud was estimated at 6.5 kilometres. The nearby Catania airport remained open.