A marine helicopter dropped buckets of water today over parts of Mount Etna, trying to prevent fires from being sparked by the lava that continued to inch closer to a small town on the side of the Sicilian volcano.
So far, two restaurants and hotel resorts situated above Nicolosi have been evacuated, and by Saturday the front line of the molten magma was about three miles from Nicolosi, the ANSA news agency said. It had been five miles away on Friday.
The province of Catania has worked out an evacuation plan for the inhabitants around Nicolosi and civil protection teams were trying to divert the flow by building embankments of earth and asphalt.
"The people of Nicolosi are calm, for now there is no danger," said Franco Barberi, director of the National Agency of Civil Protection.
The spectacular display of glowing lava and plumes of smoke from the volcano has lasted for over a week.
Etna is Europe's largest active volcano and springs to life every few months. Its slopes are closely monitored. The volcano's last major eruption was in 1992.
AP