The announcement came over three months after the eruption began as a major clean-up operation now awaits the island, which is left in ash covered ruins.
Nearly 6,000 people have been displaced, and flights have been cancelled as the volcano entered a new explosive phase, Spanish authorities on the Canary island said.
Mariano Hernandez Zapata, head of La Palma’s government, describes the area impacted as “desolate”, saying the lava was “on average about six metres high”.
There had been more than 22,000 tremors this week in the Cumbre Vieja area, a chain of volcanoes that last had a major eruption in 1971 and is one of the most active volcanic regions in the Canaries.
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