TOURISTS have been evacuated amid another dramatic eruption from a notorious volcano in Iceland.
Visitors were cleared from surrounding towns and a luxury hotel as lava began spewing from a new kilometre-long fissure in the Sundhnúkur volcano, near the popular town of Grindavik.
Almannavarnadeild ríkislögreglustjóraA kilometre-long fissure ripped the earth open[/caption]
Almannavarnadeild ríkislögreglustjóraLava and smoke can be seen spewing into the air[/caption]
Almannavarnadeild ríkislögreglustjóraLava splashes up from the opening[/caption]
ReutersThe flowing magma field[/caption]
The eruption – the volcano’s ninth since December 2023 – happened in the early hours of this morning just after the mass evacuation.
Footage from the scene shows a boiling orange rip in the earth with a scorching sheet of magma flowing out of it.
Lava and thick white smoke can be seen spewing up into the air.
Iceland‘s Met Office reported the lava was erupting from a new fissure between 700m and 1000m long.
A campsite and the Blue Lagoon Iceland – a five-star hotel resort – were evacuated, along with most of the town of Grindavík.
Police were reportedly swooping around the streets urging people to leave their homes ahead of the eruption.
Officials had time to prepare after a period of intense seismic activity suggested an eruption was likely.
However, the authorities do not believe this latest eruption poses major danger to people in the area.
Iceland‘s Met Office said that based on GPS measurements, this was likely a small eruption.
And it said the lava is mainly flowing in a south-east direction – which is not towards the town.
But it did warn that gas pollution in the area is likely.
Residents of the towns of Vogar and Reykjanesbær were urged to close windows and monitor the air quality.
The volcano last sparked an evacuation at the beginning of April.
The Blue Lagoon hotel in Grindavík was again quickly cleared in the early hours of the morning.
Hotel manager Helga Árnadóttir said she had to quickly wake up holidaymakers and lead the panicked evacuations.
The first red alert for the region was sounded just before 6am local time by the West Coast Weather Bureau.
X/Fréttastofa RÚVA pillar of flame rises from the ground just before daybreak[/caption]
X/Fréttastofa RÚVLava and smoke can be seen spewing into the air[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
