A Maltese woman and her family were ordered to sail away from Stromboli immediately, as they witnessed Wednesday’s deadly eruption.

People were injured and a 35-year-old hiker died when he was hit by a stone after two unexpected explosions on the Italian island.

Claudine, who asked for her full name not to be published, was among the tourists fleeing the eruption.

She described how she was on boat moored at a marina around 3km away when it happened.

“We were watching the explosions when, all of a sudden, the attendants ran down yelling instructions in Italian,” Claudine told Times of Malta.

"They said 'put your engines on, put your engines on. Leave now!'"

Claudine took this picture of Stromboli erupting

She and her family were told to go to the nearby island of Salina. 

If the sirens went off at night, they were warned, this could signal an impending tsunami.

They would have two options in that event; to sail out as far as they could or to leave the boat and seek higher ground. Luckily, no sirens sounded and they are safe.

Photos show Stromboli being enveloped in a plume of gray cloud, and Claudia described seeing lava streaming down the slopes of the volcano.

The Times of Malta's Clinton Calleja was also holidaying in the area and sent in this picture of the eruption.

Photo: Clinton Calleja

“It’s been a long time since we had an eruption of this magnitude,” former local councilor Gianluca Giuffre told RAI news.

The explosions came from the central-southern side of the volcano’s crater at around 3.45pm on Wednesday, according to Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.

Foreign Minister Carmelo Abela said there were no requests for assistance from Maltese travellers.