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Over 20 people were injured yesterday when “a flying lava bomb” slammed into the roof of a tour boat named “Hot Spot”, and knocked a large hole in the vessel.

AccuWeather, a site reporting US weather, reported that Hawaii County firefighters responded to reports of a lava explosion near the Kapoho ocean entry.

The blast sent “bombs’ of rock and debris hurtling through the air, one of which bombarded a lava tour boat near Suisan Harbor, Hilo, off Hawaii’s Big Island.

There’s Instagram footage of it here posted by Instagrammer Mileka Lincoln from another boat.

Eyewitnesses said the flying lava – which could have been solid rock or something that solidified in the air as it plunged down – tore through the tour boat roof and hurt both passengers and crew members. Reuters said “a huge steam-driven explosion, caused by molten rock mixing with seawater as it poured from the shoreline” hurled the projectile.

US channel ABC News 7 said two passengers were in stable condition. One passenger, said to be a woman in her 20s, was in serious condition with a broken femur, or thigh bone.

Written by Peter Needham

The lava bomb blast