Tenerife tourists warned as island set to activate biggest ever volcano alert

Tenerife could activate its biggest-ever volcano alert. (Image: Getty)

Tourists visiting Tenerife have been warned of a "potentially scary" volcano alert as it could activate its biggest ever warning system. The Spanish island is home to various volcanoes, the most famous being Mount Teide, which has experienced a series of underground tremors in recent weeks.

Experts said everyone on Tenerife is about to receive an "eruption" alert which they need to be aware of. Many people will be asked to leave their homes as part of the largest ever volcanic emergency drill which was already in the planning stage. The simulated emergency will be based in the town of Garachico in the north and all Tenerife residents will receive a telephone alert on September 26.

Mount Teide is the island's most famous volcano. (Image: Getty)

It will be the first municipality in Spain where a drill will be carried out for a volcanic emergency.

Organised by Tenerife's government and within the EU MODEX project, it will have the technical support and supervision of European experts, who will monitor the risk and incidence of the volcanic emergency between September 22 and 28.

Residents of Tenerife will receive an alert message on their mobile phone on September 26 at 9am and an eruption will be simulated.

President of the government, Rosa Dávila, said areas will be evacuated while other emergencies are also simulated.

The exercise will mobilise 1,000 people, including technicians from the government, members of the Military Emergency Unit and scientific organisations.

Ms Dávila added: "We must not forget that we are volcanically active islands although we are not at all facing an imminent situation" of volcanic emergency neither in the short nor in the medium term."

Director of volcanic monitoring of Involcan, Lucca D'Auria, stressed that the seismic activity in recent weeks is "not at all" indicative of magma movement at depth. Instead, it's to do with the hydrothermal system of the island.

He said these seismic swarms "fit within normality" on an island with a volcanically active system, which although at the moment "is asleep, sooner or later it will wake up".