Italian fire‑and‑rescue services confirmed that a 29‑year‑old American visitor from Kansas died after being struck by lightning while walking in a prohibited area on the eastern slope of Mount Etna. The incident occurred on Sunday evening at roughly 4,600 feet in the Rocca Capra sector.
Rescue helicopters located the victim and air‑lifted him to hospital, where medical personnel later declared him dead. His name has not been released while next‑of‑kin are being notified.
Authorities have kept large sections of the volcano’s slopes closed to hikers because of ongoing volcanic activity. The same activity forced the closure of Catania airport for most of last week; flights were diverted to alternative airports before the airport reopened on Saturday after the alert level was lowered.
Officials noted that, in recent decades, lightning strikes have caused more fatalities on Mount Etna than eruptions themselves. The most recent death directly linked to an eruption occurred in 1987.
Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, erupted in June, sending a plume of smoke and ash several kilometres into the atmosphere. The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) explained that the display resulted from a collapse of part of the southeast crater, producing hot lava flows. This was the 14th eruptive phase recorded in recent months, but the danger zone was confined to the summit, which remained closed to tourists as a precaution.
Local officials have repeatedly urged visitors to refrain from crowding the volcano. In February 2025 they asked tourists to stop flocking to Mount Etna to watch eruptions, yet many still attempted to climb the Sicilian slope to view substantial lava flows cutting through deep snowpack.
In a Facebook post, Sicily’s head of regional civil protection, Salvo Cocina, described how narrow streets leading to the volcano had been packed with parked cars and traffic jams, making it almost impossible for emergency vehicles to access the site.