Reykjavik, Iceland — One person has died and two others are still missing after an ice cave collapsed in southeast Iceland while a group of tourists were visiting the area, police said Monday. A group of 25 people from “several nationalities” were on an organized tour of the Breidamerkurjokull glacier with a guide when the cave collapsed, police said in a statement.
Police said four people were trapped under the ice and two of them have been recovered.
On Sunday, Sudurland police said the two people found were seriously injured, but added in a later statement Monday morning that one of them had been “pronounced dead at the scene.”
The other person was taken to hospital by helicopter and was in “stable” condition.
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Rescue services began a search operation for the two missing people on Sunday and continued the search on Monday.
“A large number of rescuers and responders took part in the operation,” police said, adding that conditions were “difficult.”
Authorities decided to temporarily suspend the search on Sunday evening because it was too dark and the area was no longer considered safe.
The glacier where the accident occurred is located near the Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon, one of Iceland’s most popular tourist destinations.
Iceland is a geologically turbulent nation, home to numerous active volcanoes that cause regular disturbances with eruptions of toxic gases, ash and lava.
On Friday, Icelandic authorities said a second A crack has formed in the southwest of the Reykjanes peninsula After lava began erupting for the sixth time in the region since December, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) announced, after weeks of warnings, that a new eruption had begun the previous evening, following a series of earthquakes.
A video shows orange lava erupting from a long fissure, which IMO estimates to be 2.4 miles long.
