Mt. Etna, Europe’s tallest and most active volcano came to life on Wednesday night, January 12, 2011. The eruption lasted about 2 hours.

According to the Associated Press, the volcano spewed a cloud of ash into the air and sent streams of lava flowing down its slopes. No one was injured in the eruption and no damage has been reported.

Mt. Etna has been affecting life in Sicily for hundreds of years. Though damage from recent eruptions has been minor and the loss of life infrequent in modern times that has not always been the case. In 1185, Mt. Etna killed 15,000 people during an eruption. A 1669 eruption destroyed villages and turned the fields above Nicolosi into a lake of hot and smoldering lava that took eight years to cool. More than 20,000 people were killed. Mt. Etna has been thought to be active for around 500,000 years.

Mt. Etna has seen increased activity in recent months. According to the Italian Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, a slight increase in Etna’s volcanic tremors had been recorded on Tuesday, reaching its peak at 7am local time on Wednesday morning.

The activity diminished but at 9:30pm local time on Wednesday night, Mt. Etna roared into life sending lava spewing down its sides. “Shortly after 9pm local time an overflow began from the edge of the east pit crater,” a statement from the institute said last night.

The eruption was a strombolian explosion from the active pit crater on the east flank of the Southeast Crater cone of Etna

Large stones, known as volcanic ‘bombs’, and a sizeable quantity of ash was released by the volcano earlier this month, though no lava was released on that occasion.

While its modern eruptions have rarely threatened the inhabited areas in the volcano’s vicinity, a lengthy blast in 2002 was spectacular enough for footage of it to be included in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.