Tourist crosses barrier, falls into active volcano in Hawaii
Emergency personnel worked for approximately one hour to retrieve the man who was later airlifted to the hospital
A man is recovering from serious injuries he sustained after he crossed a safety barrier on the cliff edge of the Kilauea Volcano caldera and fell 70 feet.
The incident occurred on Hawaii's Big Island on Wednesday evening when the man attempted to get closer to the edge and then lost his footing.
US National Park Service spokesman Ben Hayes told CNN that emergency personnel worked for approximately one hour to retrieve the man who was then airlifted to the Hilo Medical Centre.
Looking up the slope of Kilauea, a shield volcano on the island of Hawaii. In the foreground, the vent of the volcano has erupted fluid lava to the left. The peak behind the vapor column is Mauna Loa, a volcano that is separate from Kīlauea. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
This incident comes just one year after volcanic activity at Kilauea, which erupted on May 3, 2018, resulted in significant lava flows impacting numerous neighbourhoods. The US Geological Survey states that during this event the amount of lava that flowed is nearly equivalent to 320,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools and created over 350 hectares of new land along the shoreline of the island.
This volcanic activity also caused the Kilauea summit to collapse and the crater nearly doubled in size. Kilauea is one of the world's most active volcano and will erupt again in the future.