Slow but unstoppable, the lava from the volcano that has erupted on the island of La Palma is advancing towards the coast and could reach the sea this afternoon, at around 8 p.m. local time. In its path, the river of lava, about six meters high, "literally swallows" everything in its path, as explained by local officials: a hundred houses have been destroyed and the school of Los Campitos, in the municipality of El Paso, has been buried, as well as infrastructure and crops. The volcano is emitting between 6,000 and 9,000 tons of sulfur dioxide a day. So far, some 5,000 people have had to be evacuated due to the eruption on an island of some 80,000 inhabitants.

The last time there was an active volcano in Spain was in 1971 on the island of La Palma. That is until this Sunday at 15.12 h, when, on the same island, the earth started to shake, there was a big explosion, a large column of smoke rose and the volcano began to shoot lava at high speed over a pine forest. The eruption at Cumbre Vieja comes after a week in which 25,000 earthquakes have been detected in the area, which began at a depth of 20 kilometres but have been progressively rising to the surface, to the point that they have raised the island about 15 centimetres. So far, around 5,000 people have had to be evacuated on an island of around 80,000 inhabitants.