Flights disrupted across the Caribbean by eruption on Montserrat

Timeshare owners travelling to the Caribbean have suffered delays becuase flights have been disrupted across the Caribbean after a volcanic eruption on the British overseas territory of Montserrat.

The Soufriere Hills volcano, which first erupted in 1995, returned to life on Thursday, spewing ash up to 6 miles (10km) into the sky, the Montserrat Volcano Observatory said.

On the French archipelago of Guadeloupe, about 50 miles south of Montserrat, the airport remained closed yesterday and fire engines were used to try to clear a thick layer of ash from runways. About 300 travellers were reported to be stranded in Guadeloupe.

“The continued ash hanging in the atmosphere presents a risk to planes and to the security of passengers,” Guadeloupe police said in a statement.

The ash also forced Liat, the Caribbean’s biggest airline, to halt flights in and out of Antigua.

The airline said that the “continued presence of airborne ash clouds over Dominica and Guadeloupe” had forced it to suspend all remaining flights to both destinations.

Flights to other islands, including Anguilla, St Kitts and Nevis and St Martin were also disrupted.

Until the eruption in 1995 Soufriere Hills had been dormant through recorded history. The island’s capital, Plymouth, was almost fully buried by the eruption and two thirds of Montserrat’s population had to flee. The city is now an exclusion zone, described as a modern day Pompeii, and can be visited only with organised tours.