The Mount Etna volcano in Sicily erupted today, sending tourists running for their lives as an ash cloud rose overhead.

The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) in Italy said that volcanic activity picked up in the early hours of the morning had continued with strombolian explosions. It reported there was 'growing intensity'.

They added: 'Over the past few hours, the falling of a little thin ash has been flagged in the Piano Vetore area.'

Officials at the INGV said a pyroclastic flow - an avalanche of burning ash careening down the slopes at a fast-pace and high-density - was 'probably produced by a collapse of material from the northern flank of the South-East Crater'.

A red aviation warning was issued by the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre Toulouse before being downgraded to orange.