At first it looked like the worst was over.

The three great lava flows lost their strength and did not make it to the sea, as the experts had predicted by early morning.

But then the volcano reminded on Tuesday night with a bang that nature is unpredictable: The earth shook on La Palma one more time - with a strength of 3.8 as much as since Sunday no more than little later a crack opened up at the Cumbre Vieja and the earth breathed fire.

Shortly afterwards the ninth throat opened, from which lava gushes.

Hans-Christian Rößler

Political correspondent for the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb, based in Madrid.

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More than 500 residents in Tacande had to leave their homes;

a total of 6,000 people were brought to safety.

So far, more than 150 houses have been drowned in the glowing lava, which has now flooded an area of ​​over 100 hectares and turned it into scorched earth.

"If this development continues like this, the number of houses could double or triple," said the chairman of the island council of La Palma Mariano Hernández Zapato.

It's going slowly, but worries are growing because the river is approaching a district of Todoque where more than a thousand people live.

The number of those who have "lost absolutely everything" is growing.

Exclusion zone extended to a radius of two kilometers

The authorities extended the radius of the restricted zones around the eruption sites to two kilometers. This was also to ensure that people are not exposed to the toxic gases that rose from the stream in some places. "Our houses have been evacuated for the second time," says a woman who comes from near Las Manchas, which is not far from the first eruptions. Cars jammed on the streets in the middle of the night until the police temporarily closed the LP-3 highway near El Paso, which leads from one side of the island to the other. Also on Tuesday, many people did not know whether and how they could get from the west coast to the other side of the island, where the capital Santa Cruz and the airport are.The country road is the most important and shortest connection between the east and the west, where many holidaymakers are usually drawn.

The lava flow slowed its speed from initially 700 to 300 meters per hour.

But it flows inexorably towards the coast, where it is expected between Tazacorte and La Bombilla on Tuesday: On its way, the lava devours entire houses, eats its way through banana plantations and piles up in the streets.

Soon it will hardly be possible to drive south from El Paso, where many holiday homes are located.

The damage to property is increasing by the hour, while the people have so far remained uninjured - unless onlookers ignore the instructions of the authorities and approach the lava masses to the limit where dangerous gases could cause asphyxiation.

New danger looms on the coast

Since Sunday, experts have been trying to calculate the possible flow paths with the help of topographical terrain models and computer simulations. Because there is a new danger on the coast: if the lava meets the salty sea water, toxic clouds can rise. As a precaution, the coast at the height of the eruption site has already been closed to shipping, which is also felt by the island's fishermen. On land, the police received reinforcements to keep people away.

At the airport on the east side, on the other hand, operations continue unhindered. Flights from Düsseldorf and Hamburg landed there on Tuesday, and volcano experts, helpers and camera teams came with other machines. Rooms were practically unavailable on Tuesday. The online provider Booking.com had temporarily only one apartment on offer for the evening on Tuesday. In addition to the locals from the west, several hundred holidaymakers have also been accommodated in alternative quarters since Sunday, a few hundred on other Canary Islands.

The Spanish government still sees no reason to give the all-clear. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez postponed his departure for the UN General Assembly in New York for another day. He's been on the island since Sunday evening. Together with Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, he attended the meeting of the crisis team on Tuesday. The Spanish royal couple want to come on Thursday to see for themselves and show the residents their sympathy.