Luckily for the people at the summit of Mount Etna, on the Italian island of Sicily, it was not a full-fledged explosion. It still sent people scurrying for cover from boiling rocks. Caught up in the Thursday morning explosion was a BBC team and a number of tourists.
Apparently what happened was that a flow of lava ran into snow, producing superheated steam that sent fragments of rock flying in all directions. The explosion pelted the group with boiling rocks and steam. Some people suffered minor burns, cuts and bruises, and the group, scared and shaken, were quickly evacuated from the mountain by rescue teams.
