[imagesource: Davide Anastasi/AP]

The level of chill displayed by the Italian people in the image above might be the most unsettling thing I’ve seen in photos of the Mount Etna eruption that took place on Tuesday this week.

Sure, its Europe’s most active volcano, so this has happened a few times, and because the eruption was predicted, areas surrounding the crater were secure, meaning no deaths or injuries were reported

Still, though, this was described by Pedara resident Letizia Olivieri as “a rain of stones. Something I never saw in my entire life.”

An Italian friend and I have wondered at length what possessed early Sicilians to build ‘areas’ around the crater, to begin with.

Per The Associated Press, Pedara Mayor Alfio Cristaudo said the village was in emergency mode, due to the scale of the eruption.

“The entire territory of Pedara and all the streets are covered in volcanic ashes and lapillus (volcanic stones)”, he said.

Pedara resident Massimiliano Formica said he was at home Tuesday afternoon when he heard what he thought was the beginning of a rainstorm.

But when he looked outside, he saw it was “raining in a weird way. I went out and I saw soil falling down. Also big stones.”

Residents and local teams spent yesterday cleaning up streets, courtyards, and cars which had been covered in ash.

The following video shows the eruption and those aforementioned streets:

Here’s the eruption from several angles:

Some stunning images to round things off:

As the Italians would say:

Madonna, che paura!

[source:ap]