An ear-splitting bang over the Italian port city of Naples sparked fears on Wednesday that nearby Mt Vesuvius was erupting.
Vesuvius is the only volcano on the mainland of Europe to have erupted within the last century Photo: AFP/GETTY
Switchboards at the city's emergency services were jammed as frightened locals prepared for the worst, with police and fire fighters put on high alert.
But the deafening noise turned out to be a supersonic boom caused by two Italian F-16 fighter jets streaking over the city in pursuit of a suspicious aircraft.
The aircraft, which had failed to identify itself properly, was found to be a civilian Ilyushin cargo plane returning from an aid mission in North Africa to Austria.
Vesuvius is the only volcano on the mainland of Europe to have erupted within the last century, although it is currently dormant.
It is best known for erupting in AD79, burying the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Since then it has erupted about 40 times, with the most serious recent explosion happening in 1631, when about 3,000 people died.
The last eruption was in 1944, when photographs of the mountain spewing huge columns of black smoke were captured by United States Air Force bombers.
Last year a report by National Geographic magazine claimed that Naples' current evacuation plans were chronically inadequate and that many inhabitants would not be able to escape the city in time if the volcano erupted.
Italian authorities dismissed the report, saying that the evacuation plan would work smoothly.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário