Yemen volcano erupts in Red Sea

October 1, 2007

Yeman - A volcano, spewing lava hundreds of feet into the air, erupted on a island off the coast of Yemen Sunday night.

A NATO fleet en route to the Suez Canal witnessed the eruption at Jazirt Atta-Ir and a Canadian naval vessel has joined the hunt for missing in the area, according to the Canadian Forces Web site.

"HMCS Toronto is currently conducting a search and rescue operation, at the request of the Yemen coast guard, to locate nine people believed to be at sea," a statement posted on the Web site for National Defence and Canadian Forces said.

The Associated Press reports that Ken Allan, a Navy spokesman, said a NATO fleet just outside the territorial waters of the island reported seeing a "catastrophic volcanic eruption" at 7 p.m. local time. The two-mile-long island is about 70 miles off the coast of Yemen.

"At this time, the entire island is aglow with lava and magma as it pours down into the sea. We do not have confirmation of how many people were on this island at the time of the eruption," Allan said in an e-mail to the Associated Press.

"The lava is spewing hundreds of feet into the air, with the volcanic ash also (rising) a thousand feet in the air," Allan said according to the AP.

The island of Jazirt Atta-Ir is located about 85 miles from Yemen in the Red Sea.

The Toronto is part of NATO's Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1), which its Web site describes as "a multinational seagoing Force, on task continuously giving NATO the ability to respond quickly and with flexibility to promote NATO's interests anywhere in the world."