And while the advisory assured that the “likelihood of an eruption continues to gradually decline,” the 11,000-foot-tall volcano remains at an “elevated state of unrest,” meaning that an “explosive eruption” is still possible.

Fiery lava seen flowing from the volcano near the capital as disaster agency issues warning to nearby residents.

A massive eruption at Mt. Etna forced tourists to flee the volcano on Monday after a plume of high temperature gases, ash and rock “several kilometers high” billowed into the air above them, Italian authorities said.

The explosion was the strongest since 2021, expelling ash, dust, lava and a pyroclastic flow, but no injuries or deaths were reported

In 1669, in what has been considered the volcano’s worst known eruption, lava buried a swath of Catania, about 23 kilometers (15 miles) away and devastated dozens of villages. An eruption in 1928 cut off a rail route circling the mountain’s base.