Ammon News - Tourists have been forced to flee Mount Etna as the volcano erupts, sending up a giant plume of ash.

Video footage shows tour groups rushing away from the eruption of the volcano in Sicily, one of the most active in Europe.

Other images show tourists calmly photographing the spectacle despite being just a few hundred yards away.

In the nearby city of Catania, beneath the flanks of the volcano, crowds of people enjoyed the sunshine and went about their business as the clouds of ash billowed high into the sky. Telegraph