NICOLOSI, Sicily (Reuters) - Rescue workers on Thursday battled to divert lava spewing from Europe's highest and most active volcano, Mount Etna, from engulfing a building housing a scientific monitoring center.The lava flow reached a car park 10 yards away from the Sapienza refuge, a popular tourist spot offering shelter from bad weather, after bulldozers piled up earth and hardened lava from earlier eruptions into barricades.
``If the lava continues like this the refuge should be saved, but with lava you can never tell and it's better to be on the safe side,'' Alpine rescue coordinator Mario Lipari told Reuters Television.
Vulcanologists on the scene said it appeared a stream of lava further up the volcano had slowed, but it was still not clear what would happen if it reached a separate flow which had plowed through a ski lift earlier in the day.
Clouds of smoke and ash have billowed for weeks from the volcano -- a feature dominating the eastern side of the Mediterranean island -- and there have been some 2,500 minor earthquakes deep under the mountain.
The last time lava reached the car-park at the Sapienza refuge was in 1983.
Mount Etna, which had given scientists a respite for two days, roared back in fury earlier in the day as new explosions and fast-moving lava ate up ski-lift pylons and destroyed a lift station.
But the new lava flow at an altitude of about 8,580 feet did not pose any greater threat to the nearest town, Nicolosi.
``It is a difficult situation, a new emergency situation,'' Nicolosi Mayor Salvatore Moschetto told reporters earlier on Thursday.
Etna had offered civil protection workers a respite after two fissures at high altitudes closed and there was reduced volcanic activity on the southeast slopes for two days.
Catania airport was closed for two days earlier this week because of fine black ash that showered the runways.
The last time Etna posed a serious threat to villages on its slopes was in 1992, when lava streams headed toward Zafferana, a town of 7,000 people.
In a spectacular operation, Italian and U.S. military used controlled explosions to divert the flow.
Mount Etna, Europe's tallest and most active volcano, spews out fresh lava and smoke from a crater at an altitude of about 8,580 feet July 26, 2001 in the latest and most spectacular phase of eruption. The new lava flow did not pose any greater threat to the nearest town, Nicolosi, officials said. (Mario Laporta/Reuters)