Watch a lava stream destroy a house in Spain

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: PROFANITY IS HEARD IN THE VIDEO

A volcano erupted on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma on Sunday (Sunday 19), sending lava shooting into the air and streaming in rivers towards houses in two villages from the Cumbre Vieja national park in the south of the island.

Authorities had begun evacuating the infirm and some farm animals from nearby villages before the eruption at 3:15 p.m. (1415 GMT) on a wooded slope in the sparsely populated Cabeza de Vaca area, according to the islands' government.

Two hours later, with lava edging down the hillside from five fissures torn into the hillside, the municipality ordered the evacuation of four villages, including El Paso and Los Llanos de Aridane.

After nightfall, video footage showed fountains of lava shooting hundreds of meters into the sky, and at least three incandescent orange rivers of molten rock pouring down the hill, tearing gashes into woods and farmland, and spreading as they reached lower ground.

No human casualties have been reported so far, but there has been material damage that has yet to be quantified.