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American Morning

Mount Etna Continues to Erupt

Aired July 26, 2001 - 11:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... surrounding areas here in Sicily. A pretty awesome sight. All day, all last night, large amounts of gash and ash spewing out into the skies over Sicily.

And you may have heard a few seconds ago, then, what we have been hearing every few seconds or minutes, those thunderingly loud, underground explosions that really shake the ground on the mountainside that we have been standing on throughout the course of the day.

We have pulled back our cameras within the last few hour or so, from a few kilometers over there. That was because the position that we occupied was approached by lava, and there was concern on the part of Italian officials that the position where we were would have been cut off by the approaching lava.

As I say, molten lava and molten rock is still moving gradually, but very deliberately, down the valley towards the populated areas. Italian officials are very careful to say at this stage there is absolutely no danger, in their eyes, of any loss of human life at this stage, although they do say their emergency teams are on high alert and that they are watching the situation very carefully -- Stephen.

STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Matthew, had you had a chance to see? We had some reports earlier that authorities were trying to influence the flow of lava, trying to move it away populated areas, with embankments that they were building. Are they still doing that.

CHANCE: That's right. In fact, Italian emergency teams say they are working around the clock, in a race against time to change or to stem the flow of the lava coming out of southern slopes here, coming out of the mountainside. What they were doing is using bulldozers to shift large amounts of earths, to create channels to divert that lava away from populated areas and from poverty.

They've had some success in doing that in other areas, where the lava flow has been less intense over recent hours. They've been much less successful in the area where we have been all day, just up the mountainside from here, around the ski resorts of Sapienza. Back there, the lava is coming out at a much faster rate and is much more difficult to control -- Stephen. FRAZIER: It sounds also much more dangerous. We are glad you are well, Matthew Chance, and thank you for that update on Mount Etna, in Sicily.

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