LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Spain: Throwing a handful of belongings into her car alongside goats, chickens and a turtle, Yahaira Garcia fled her home just before the volcano erupted, belching molten lava down the mountainside.
She and her husband, who live near the Bodegon Tamanca winery at the foot of La Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma, decided to leave on Sunday afternoon just before the eruption kicked off.
“We decided to leave even before they gave the evacuation order after a really terrible night of earthquakes... my house shook so much it felt like it was going to collapse,” the 34-year-old told AFP by phone.
“We were on our way when we realized the volcano had erupted.” He left in his car and she took hers to go and pick up her parents and their animals: four goats, two pigs, 20 chickens, 10 rabbits, four dogs and a turtle.
“I am nervous, worried, but we are safe,” Garcia said.
In residential areas flanking the volcano, hundreds of police and Guardia civil officers were charged with evacuations, with the work continuing well into the night, police footage showed.
“This is the police. This is not a drill, please vacate your homes,” they shouted through loud speakers, their vehicles flashing blue lights on the drive through dark streets.
Elsewhere, the footage showed officers evacuating goats in pick-up trucks in an area which is above all agricultural.
They also filmed the slow collapse of a building whose walls caved in under a wall of red hot lava.
Although some 5,500 people have been evacuated and “around 100 homes destroyed,” there have so far been no reports of injuries.
As the lava beat an unstoppable path down the mountainside, Angie Chaux, who wasn’t home when the alarm was raised, rushed back to try and salvage some possessions.
“When we got there, the road was closed and the police gave us three minutes to get our things,” said the 27-year-old.
It was 4:30 am and there were people and cars everywhere.
“Right now, we’re watching the news and the lava is 700 meters from our home. I’m really worried because I don’t know what’s going to happen to it.”
Miriam Moreno, another local resident, said they had been ready to leave when the order came with emergency backpacks stocked with food and water.
“You can hear a rumble as if planes were flying overhead and see smoke out of the window although at night you could actually see the lava about two kilometers away,” she said, admitting they were worried about “toxic gases.”
For the evacuees, it is an anguished wait to see what happens with no-one sure when they will be able to go home — or what they will find when they get there.
“The worst of it is the anxiety about losing your home. My house on the beach is fine for the moment but I don’t know when I’ll be able to go back,” said 70-year-old Montserrat Lorenzo from the coastal village of El Remo.
And experts do not know how long the volcano will remain active nor when the flow of lava, which officials said was “about six meters (20 feet) high,” will stop.
“Now they are saying the volcano could continue erupting for three months... we don’t know when the volcano will settle down,” said Garcia.
Volcanology expert Stavros Meletlidis from Spain’s National Geographic Institute said it was too early to say.
“There are volcanoes in the Canary Islands that have erupted for days and others that have continued for several years,” he told Spain’s public television.
Canary islanders flee as volcano vents its fury
https://arab.news/whkwt
Canary islanders flee as volcano vents its fury
- In residential areas flanking the volcano, hundreds of police and Guardia civil officers were charged with evacuations
- Although some 5,500 people have been evacuated and "around 100 homes destroyed", there have so far been no reports of injuries
Two high-speed trains derail in Spain, broadcaster reports seven people killed
- The accident happened near Adamuz, which is near Cordoba
MADRID: Two high-speed trains derailed on Sunday in southern Spain, the rail network operator said, and state-run television channel RTVE said seven people had died, citing police sources.
The accident happened near Adamuz, in Cordoba province. Seven people have been confirmed dead by police, RTVE said, adding that 100 people have been injured, 25 seriously.
Spanish police did not immediately respond to request for comment from Reuters.
“The Iryo 6189 Malaga — (to Madrid) train has derailed from the track at Adamuz, crashing onto the adjacent track. The (Madrid) to Huelva train which was traveling on the adjacent track has also derailed,” said Adif, which runs the rail network, in a social media post.
Adif said the accident happened at 6:40 p.m. (1740 GMT), about ten minutes after the Iryo train left Cordoba heading toward Madrid.
Iryo is a private rail operator, majority-owned by Italian state-controlled railway group Ferrovie dello Stato. The train involved was a Freccia 1000 train which was traveling between Malaga and Madrid, a spokesperson for Ferrovie dello Stato said.
Iryo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Adif has suspended all rail services between Madrid and Andalusia.
Andalusia emergency services said on social media that all rail traffic had been halted and emergency services were on their way, including at least nine ambulances and emergency support vehicles.
CALLS FOR MEDICS
A woman named Carmen posted on X that she had been on board the Iryo to Madrid. “Ten minutes after departing (from Cordoba) the train started to shake a lot, and it derailed from coach 6 behind us. The lights went out.”
Footage posted by another Iryo train passenger, also on X, showed an Iryo staffer in a fluorescent jacket instructing passengers to remain in their seats in the darkened carriages, and those with first aid training to keep watch over fellow passengers.
The staffer told passengers they would be evacuated when it was safe to leave, but at that moment the safest place was on the train. He also urged people to maintain mobile phone batteries to be able to use their torches when they disembarked.
The passenger wrote: “In our carriage we’re well but we don’t know about the other carriages. There’s smoke and they’re calling for a doctor.”
The regional government has activated emergency protocols to mobilize more resources to the accident site. Locals posted on social media that a building would be set up in the village nearest the crash for evacuated passengers to be taken to.
Salvador Jimenez, a journalist for RTVE who was on board the Iryo train, shared images showing the nose of the rear carriage of the train lying on its side, with evacuated passengers sitting on the side of the carriage facing upwards.
Jimenez told TVE by phone from beside the stricken trains that passengers had used emergency hammers to smash the windows and climb out, and they had seen two people taken out of the overturned carriages on stretchers.
“There’s a certain uncertainty about when we’ll get to Madrid, where we’ll spend the night, we’ve had no message from the train company yet,” he said. “It’s very cold but here we are.”
