Large column of smoke on the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma.

Photo: RTVC

The airport on the island of La Palma, in the Canary Islands, affected by the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, cannot function due to the accumulation of ash.

This was confirmed this Saturday by the body that manages Spanish airports, after two new eruptive mouths, which expel

"rivers of lava."

There are already more than 6,200 people evacuated.

The airport is "inoperative due to ash accumulation," reported AENA (Spanish Airports and Air Navigation).

The agency added that the cleaning tasks began, "but the situation may change at any time", after clarifying that the rest of the airports in the Canary Islands, one of the main Spanish tourist destinations, "are operational."

An aerial image of the lava moving over the island.

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Photo: AFP

On Friday the first flights to La Palma were canceled since the volcano eruption began last Sunday.

Because of this, the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, ruled out her visit to the island due to the cancellation of different air connections "and the impossibility of enabling other solutions by sea," according to a statement from her portfolio.

On Friday night, 

the volcano suffered an increase in its activity;

he chained the explosions like he hadn't done before.

Two new mouths opened, pouring flowing lava at high speed and the volcano spitting rocks much farther away.

The fear of the collapse of a part of the cone led to order the evacuation of another area of ​​the island

, a measure that affected 160 people and that brings to more than 6,200 the number of inhabitants who had to leave their homes.

"The peak of intensity of the volcano suffered a huge rise," Miguel Ángel Morcuende, director of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan, told the press, justifying the evacuation.

In the same press conference, María José Blanco of the National Geographic Institute reported that

"lava flows, which are high in temperature and contain gases, are not very viscous and can jump over geographical obstacles."

The new lava flow on La Palma runs above the previous one and is more fluid and faster.

Photo: Kike Rincón / Europa Press.

In Video, volcanic eruption on the Cumbre Vieja de La Palma

See also:

Volcano erupts and lava reaches homes in La Palma, Canary Islands (+ Video)

(With information from Page 12 and Efe)