A toddler could have plummeted to his death on Christmas Day at Hawaii's Kilauea volcano if not for his mother's quick reaction, officials said. The National Park Service said in a statement that the toddler wandered off from his family at the Kilauea Overlook and snuck past the barrier blocking onlookers from the volcano before running toward the 400-foot cliff edge.

One of the world’s most active volcanoes erupted on Monday after a three-month hiatus, spewing bright orange lava as high as 300 feet, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

Lava began bubbling Monday through the crust of one of the world's most active volcanoes — Kilauea, on Hawaii's Big Island. The eruption was confined to the volcano's summit caldera, in a remote, closed area of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park,