Lava flows down slopes of La Palma volcano

Lava continued to erupt from a volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma early on Tuesday.

The volcano, which has buried more than 500 buildings and displaced over 6,000 people since last week, lessened its activity on Monday, although scientists warned that it was too early to declare the eruption phase finished.

Authorities ordered residents to stay indoors to avoid the unhealthy fumes from lava meeting sea waters.

The plume of ash emerging from the main vent that opened on September 19 stopped in the early hours of Monday, live footage of the Cumbre Vieja range in the La Palma island broadcasted by the public Canary Islands Television showed.

But the column of ash and volcanic material returned after a two-hour hiatus.

“The volcano of La Palma has entered in a phase of lower activity,” the Madrid-based Institute of Geosciences, IGEO, said in a tweet.

The archipelago's volcanology institute published graphs showing a sharp decline in seismic activity in the area.

Experts were also on alert as the swarm of quakes that preceded and accompanied Spain's first volcanic eruption on land in half a century moved south, with more activity detected in the island's Fuencaliente area, Spain's National Geographic Institute said.

IMAGE: AP