Boaters enjoying what was supposed to be a sunny day on the southern Sicilian coast in Italy had to flee for their lives when the Stromboli island volcano erupted on Wednesday — sending gas, rock and volcanic ash several hundred meters into the sea.

“We were sailing at a safe distance as per ordinance, when all of a sudden we heard a loud bang and saw a large black cloud spewing out of the Stromboli crater and pouring into the sea,” 19-year-old Elena Schiera from Palermo, Sicily, told CNN.