One person was killed when ice collapsed on a glacier in southern Iceland while a group of foreign tourists were visiting it, local media reported.
A second tourist was injured but taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while two others remain missing.
Rescue teams have resumed the search for missing people on Breiðamerkurjökull glacier after suspending operations overnight due to difficult conditions.
A group of 25 people were visiting the ice cave with a guide on Sunday when the ice collapsed.
Rescue workers tried to manually extract the missing people.
Emergency crews received a call about the collapse just before 6pm on Sunday.
“A large number of rescue workers and rescue teams joined the operation,” police said on Monday, adding that the situation was “difficult.”
Local media reported that 200 people were working on the rescue effort at one point on Sunday. Dozens more were returning on Monday morning, with more expected to arrive during the day.
Superintendent Runarsson told Icelandic television that police had not been able to make contact with the two missing people.
He said on Sunday night that conditions were “challenging” but the weather was “fine.”
He confirmed that all those involved were foreign tourists, but said there was no evidence to suggest the trip to the cave should not have taken place.
“Ice cave tours are available pretty much year-round,” he says.
“These tours are run by experienced, strong mountain guides. There’s always the possibility of misfortune. I trust these people to assess the situation and know when it’s safe to go and when it’s not. And good work has been done there for many years. This is living land, so anything can happen.”
The police chief was quoted as saying that people were standing in the ravine between the cave entrances when the ice wall collapsed.
Breidamerkurjökull is a glacier tongue that stretches from Vatnajökull glacier to Jökulsárlón lake. The glacier tongue is famous for its ice caves, which are open for tours.
