An American tourist has died after being struck by lightning while hiking on Sicily’s Mount Etna, Italian firefighters reported on Monday. The 29-year-old man from Kansas was hiking in an area closed to visitors due to recent volcanic activity when the incident occurred on Sunday evening.
The victim was rescued by helicopter from an exposed section above the tree line, but medical personnel later declared him dead. His identity has not yet been released as authorities are still in the process of notifying his next of kin.
The area where the incident occurred had been closed to hikers due to prolonged volcanic activity, which also forced the airport in nearby Catania to close for most of last week. The airport, Italy’s fifth-busiest hub by passenger traffic, resumed flights on Saturday following a downgrade in the volcanic alert.
According to Boris Behncke, a researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology’s Etna Observatory, volcanic ash emissions from Mount Etna pose a significant risk to aircraft.
