US Tourist Dies After Being Struck By Lightning While Hiking On Italy's Mount Etna

An American tourist died after being struck by lightning while hiking on Sicily's Mount Etna, BBC reported. The 29-year-old man from Kansas was hiking above the tree line on Sunday evening when a thunderstorm hit the area, according to Italian firefighters and local media. He was reportedly in a restricted zone and was apparently trying to get closer to the summit of the active volcano.

Emergency crews reached him by helicopter at around 8 pm. local time and found him in a state of cardiac arrest. He was airlifted to Cannizzaro Hospital in Catania, where doctors were unable to revive him. He was pronounced dead later that evening, according to local newspaper Catania Today. 

Authorities have not released his identity as they work to notify his family.

The incident comes as Mount Etna, Europe's highest volcano and one of the most active in the world, has been showing increased activity. Recent lava flows and ash emissions have disrupted air traffic in eastern Sicily and led authorities to extend restrictions on access to the volcano's upper slopes.

Italy's Civil Protection agency has warned that conditions can become particularly dangerous at higher elevations, where visitors quickly encounter high-mountain weather and there is little shelter above the tree line. The combination of volcanic activity, sudden weather changes and thunderstorms can pose serious risks to hikers.

"The passage from sea level to high mountain within a few kilometres causes sudden changes in weather due to currents of humid air coming from the sea meeting masses of cold air," the agency warns.

Etna attracts around 1.5 million visitors each year and remains a major tourist attraction despite its frequent eruptions. An aviation alert for the volcano was only recently lowered from the highest red level to orange after ash clouds disrupted operations at Catania International Airport.

"Volcanic ash can be a great risk for aircraft. It can be sucked into the motors, and force them to stall. This is why everyone is so very cautious with aircraft when there is a volcanic ash emission," said Boris Behncke, a researcher at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology's Etna Observatory.

Authorities said lightning has claimed more lives on Etna in recent decades than volcanic activity. The volcano's last eruption-related fatalities were recorded in 1987.