La Palma residents scale volcanic ash mountains to return home

Dionisio Leal looks at heaps of ash from the Cumbre Vieja volcano surrounding his house as he stands at the window, in Las Manchas neighbourhood on the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain, January 20, 2022. Picture taken January 20, 2022. REUTERS/Borja Suarez

Eighty-year-old Sabino Leal Jeronimo returned to his home on Spain's Canary Island of La Palma for the first time in four months on Friday after a volcanic eruption forced him to flee.

Lava streams may no longer threaten to burn down his house in the hilly town of Las Manchas, but what greeted him was still daunting - three-metre (10 feet) mounds of black ash piled around his home and in the surrounding streets, forcing him to clamber up hills and pick his way down a filthy staircase to access his home by the back door.