A video published by Italian media showing tourists fleeing during the eruption of Mount Etna in Italy has sparked widespread controversy on social media.
A massive eruption on Mount Etna forced tourists to flee the volcano on Monday, after a column of superheated gases, ash, and rocks rose "several kilometers" above them, according to Italian authorities.
Photos posted on social media showed long lines of people running down the hill to escape the explosion, while a travel agency owner told CNN that there were 40 people on the surface of the Sicilian volcano when it erupted.
Giuseppe Panfalo, a tour guide with Go Etna, filmed a group of tourists huddled together in the shadow of a massive ash cloud on the horizon.
"They almost scratched us. Look at this cloud. We were just a few steps away. Thank God we had a responsible guide with us," he says in the video he shared with CNN Spanish. "It all came at once: a huge cloud of smoke, a huge roar."
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