Cameraman's close call with giant lava bomb

A New Zealand cameraman found himself in the path of an active volcano spitting giant "lava bombs" while filming in Vanuatu.

In video of the incident, Bradley Ambrose can be seen near the edge of the Marum lava lake when a large spray of lava shoots up into the air and almost completely covers him.

As the massive droplets of hot liquid rain down around him, Mr Ambrose grabs his camera and runs away from mouth of the volcano.

"That was probably my closest call ever to being completely covered in lava bombs," he says into the camera some moments later.

"There's not one shot that's worth that so I'm going to back off and get some more protective gear on."

He said a pulse of gas was the cause of the huge lava splatter.

The temperature of lava ejections can range from between 600-800 degrees Celsius.

"I was extremely lucky to not have had a large one hit," he said.