A 29-year-old American tourist from Kansas died Sunday after being struck by lightning on Italy's Mount Etna while hiking in an area closed to visitors due to ongoing volcanic activity, Italian firefighters said Monday.
The man was struck in an exposed area above the tree line on the Sicily volcano. Firefighters and emergency services reached him by helicopter around 8 p.m. local time and found him in cardiac arrest. He was flown to Cannizzaro Hospital in Catania, where medical personnel declared him dead at 9:30 p.m. His name was not released by authorities.
According to initial reports, the tourist had entered a section of the volcano designated as off-limits to hikers, apparently attempting to reach closer to the summit of the active volcano. Authorities have closed vast areas of Mount Etna's slope to hikers due to the prolonged volcanic activity, which forced the closure of nearby Catania airport for much of the previous week.
Mount Etna's eruptive activity continues, with ongoing ash emissions from the Voragine summit crater. Officials noted that in recent decades, more people have died on Mount Etna from lightning strikes than from volcanic activity. The most recent deaths related to eruptions on Europe's most active volcano occurred in 1987.
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