Residents evacuated as lava spews out

Vacationers and residents have been evacuated as a volcano erupted in south-west Iceland, threatening a city and widespread attraction.

The volcano has been spewing lava in a fiery show of orange and pink because the eruption started within the morning, creating an enormous crack within the floor which has grown to 1.2km (0.75 miles) lengthy.

A number of earthquakes have occurred within the volcanic space all through the day.

The volcano is near the fishing city of Grindavik and the well-known Blue Lagoon spa. A small variety of individuals refused to evacuate the city, native media reported.

Grindavik resident Asrun Kristinsdottir instructed the BBC she fled after listening to emergency sirens early within the morning.

Residing close to the volcano for many of her life meant she at all times had luggage packed and able to go. However she stated this time was totally different due to “fixed” quakes as she was making ready to go away.

The protecting limitations round Grindavik have been breached, as a brand new eruptive fissure opened a couple of hundred meters inside, the Icelandic Meteorological Workplace (IMO) reported.

It was “extraordinarily troublesome” to see this exercise contained in the city’s security limitations, stated Ms Kristinsdottir, who serves as president of Grindavik city council.

Folks had been requested to “depart the hazard zone”, the area’s police commissioner Ulfar Ludviksson instructed Iceland’s RUV broadcaster. However he stated people staying in “seven or eight homes there… have determined to stay within the city”.

There have been fears that the city was “at risk of getting lava flows coming into the inhabited space”, stated Rikke Pedersen from the Nordic Volcanological Centre.

A scorching water pipe has damaged within the northern a part of Grindavik, which confirms that appreciable cracking has occurred inside the city, the IMO stated.

Nevertheless, volcanic exercise eased off within the early afternoon on Tuesday.

Thormar Omarrson runs a pizza restaurant in Grindavik that was compelled to shut as a result of eruption.

He instructed the BBC he had lived within the city for 30 years however relocated along with his household in 2024 after the authorities warned in regards to the rising danger posed by eruptions.

Leaving was “heartbreaking”, Mr Omarrson stated. “My household was born and raised there and now their group is gone.”

He stated a few of his mates in Grindavik had refused to evacuate: “Whenever you reside there in your house you need to be left alone in your house.”

A lot of the 4,000 residents of Grindavik left in a mass evacuation in 2023 due to the hazards of the volcanic exercise. The volcano has erupted a number of occasions since.

The size of the magma that shaped on Tuesday underneath the crater sequence stretched to about 11 km (6.8 miles) – the longest that has been measured since 11 November 2023, meteorologists stated. The magma hall extends about 3km additional northeast than seen in earlier eruptions.

Based mostly on present wind course, gasoline air pollution from the eruption will journey northeast in direction of the capital space, the IMO added.

The eruption, which started round 09.45 native time (10:45 BST), occurred after a number of earthquakes hit the realm often known as the Sundhnuk crater vary.

A number of eruptions have occurred on the Reykjanes Peninsula since 2021.

The final time the peninsula had a interval of volcanic exercise was 800 years in the past – and the eruptions continued for many years.

Iceland has 33 energetic volcano methods and sits over what is called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the boundary between two of the biggest tectonic plates on the planet.