Lava flowing from a volcano that erupted on Sunday near the Icelandic fishing port of Grindavik has engulfed at least three homes just hours after villagers were evacuated to safety, authorities said.
It was the nation’s fifth volcanic eruption in under three years.
The most recent occurred just weeks ago on Dec. 18 in the same region, southwest of the capital Reykjavik. At least three houses were engulfed in fire as glowing orange lava flowed into the edge of the town of Grindavik, live images broadcast by public television RUV showed.
Photo: Icelandic Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management / AFP
“In a little village like this one, we’re like a family, we all know each other as family — it’s tragic seeing this,” resident Sveinn Ari Gudjonsson said.
“It’s unreal, it’s like watching a film,” added the 55-year-old, who works in the fishing industry.
Most of the 4,000-strong population of Grindavik had been evacuated as a precaution on Nov. 11 last year after scientists said a magma dyke was shifting beneath them.
At the time, a series of small earthquakes — sometimes hundreds per day — had created large cracks in roads, homes and buildings.
The first eruption began at 8am on Sunday when a crack opened in the ground about 450m from the town.
The Icelandic Meteorological Office at 6:45pm said that fissure measured about 900m and had crossed over the main road to Grindavik.
A second fissure opened at about midday on the edge of town, with that lava engulfing the homes. It measured about 100m by the evening, the office said.
Jets of orange lava and plumes of smoke spewed into the sky from the two cracks throughout the day.
The eruption knocked out electricity and water in Grindavik, authorities said, but airline flights were not affected.
Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir at a news conference called Sunday a “black day today for Grindavik and ... for all of Iceland, but the sun will come up again.”
Icelandic Civil Protection and Emergency Management head Vidir Reynisson said the eruption was “the most serious threat” posed by a volcanic eruption in Iceland since January 1973.
Back then, a fissure erupted just 150m from the town center of Heimaey in the Vestmann Islands, surprising locals at dawn.
One-third of homes were destroyed and the 5,300 residents were evacuated. One person died.
In a rare address to the nation, Icelandic President Gudni Johannesson said that he “hoped the situation would calm down, but anything can happen.”
Amid the uncertainty facing the town, he urged Icelanders to “stand together and have compassion for those who cannot be in their homes.”
Shortly after the Dec. 18 eruption, Grindavik residents were allowed to return for brief periods. They were authorized to return to their homes permanently on Dec. 23, but only a few dozen chose to do so.
Late on Saturday, authorities had ordered an emergency evacuation to be completed by yesterday due to growing seismic activity and its impact on the large cracks already present in the town.
On Wednesday last week, a 51-year-old Icelandic worker who was repairing a crack in a residential garden disappeared when the ground suddenly gave way beneath him.
He fell more than 30m.
The intensive search to find him was called off on Friday because the area was too dangerous.
Officials were keeping a close eye on the nearby Svartsengi geothermal plant, which provides electricity and water to the 30,000 residents of the Reykjanes Peninsula. Workers have been building a wall to protect the facility since November last year.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS