King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain have visited the island of La Palma following a volcanic eruption last week.
Their Majesties visited the island to learn more about how the people are coping and what emergency services are doing to help.
The King and Queen went to evacuation centres and spoke to those impacted by the eruption. They also spoke to the organisations that manage seismic-volcanic crises on the ground.
King Felipe and Queen Letizia later met with the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, at the Cabildo de Santa Cruz de la Palma; they all attended a meeting with the Technical Committee of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (PEVOLCA) to learn more about the eruption and the after-effects. Representatives from the Spanish Red Cross were also on hand to explain what the situation was like for evacuees.
The royals later held a short meeting with the PEVOLCA Scientific Committee and travelled to the Advanced Command Post to see the facilities for emergency service personnel. Afterwards, they went to the vicinity of the Todoque Church to view the damage from the volcanic eruption.
While there, the King delivered a short speech saying, in part:
“The message we want to convey is that the Queen and I wanted to be here, in the Canaries, in La Palma, close to all those who are suffering the consequences of this volcano, Cumbre Vieja, which is causing so much damage in the municipalities of the area.
“We want to convey our solidarity, our affection, and also that of all Spaniards, who these days are so aware of the palm trees and here of the residents of these municipalities so seriously affected...
“We have to do everything in our power to support these families, preserve their safety, guarantee their tomorrow and rebuild on La Palma everything that nature has taken away. Not perhaps in the same place, there are things that cannot be recovered, but perhaps in other places.”
Queen Letizia also shared her solidarity in a short message, sharing messages people had shared with her.
Their Majesties later met with others who were affected by the disaster in the areas of El Paso and Los Llanos de Aridane.
The King had been following the developments surrounding the eruption closely since last week and had spoken to the President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, to convey his support and to check on the population in La Palma.
A volcano in La Palma erupted on 19 September after a series of earthquakes shook the area over the weekend. It is the first eruption in the Cumbre Vieja volcano chain since 1971.
Lava shot into the air and into rivers, drifting into two villages. Authorities evacuated animals and the vulnerable from the nearby villages at 14.15, but two hours later, they were forced to evacuate four other villages threatened by the lava. The Civil Guard has said they are assisting in the evacuation of 5,000 to 10,000 people.
The earliest eruption recorded in La Palma was in 1430.