Horrifying footage shows moment Mount Etna erupts leaving tourists and guides running for their lives

Mount Etna has erupted, prompting tourists and guides to literally run for their lives down the mountainside.

Harrowing footage has shown the moment the world's most active stratovolcano erupted, to the surprise of dozens of people visiting the Sicilian landmark in Italy.

The tourists and guides appeared to get caught in the destructive path of the volcano, with the eruption sending huge plumes of gas, volcanic rock, also known as pyroclastic flow, and black ash some several kilometres into the air.

Those hiking on the side of the volcano were sent scrambling and sprinting to safety along its precarious ledge.

The first indicator of an eruption—tremors—were felt at around midnight on Sunday (June 1), before reaching a peak hours later and erupting at around 3.50am local time on Monday (June 2), reports The Independent.

While the activity died down by the early afternoon, its huge ash cloud was still visible from many nearby Italian villages and towns.

The incident prompted a 'code red' for aviation and air traffic control as the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre Toulouse (Vaac) said the ash cloud containing water and sulphur dioxide was a risk, having reached an altitude of around 6,400 meters, but has since been downgraded to an orange warning, The Standard reports.

Experts have since confirmed it was the most powerful eruption in four years.

“Such intense volcanic activity had not been recorded since February 2021,” Stefano Branca, director of the Etna Observatory in Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), told the news outlet.

The agency also said the volcano experienced some 'growing intensity' as the incident went on.

The INGV said in a statement on Monday morning: “Over the past few hours, the activity flagged in the previous statement issued at 4.14am (3.14am BST) has carried on with strombolian explosions of growing intensity that, at the moment, are of strong intensity and nearly continuous.

"Over the past few hours, the falling of a little thin ash has been flagged in the Piano Vetore area.”

As for the tourists seen fleeing for their lives, experts have said they would have likely been at a safe distance.

Volcanologist Dougal Jerram said tourists are generally allowed to go as far as the Valley of the Lion, which gives visitors 'enough of a distance that even when the volcano has one of these explosive phases, you're in a relatively safe distance from it, albeit, quite spectacular.'

“The good thing about the mountain guys is they're all linked up with radios,” he added. “They know the terrain, they know the safety aspects.”