The ice cave is part of the famous Vatnajökull National Park in the southwest of the island. The search for the missing people is proving difficult.
The accident happened near the glacial lake Jökulsarlon. The search for the missing people is difficult.
Joaquin Gomez Sastre/NurPhoto/Getty
A tragic accident occurred in the ice in Iceland on Sunday. Part of a cave in the Breidamerkurjökull glacier in southeast Iceland collapsed, killing a tourist. Another person was seriously injured and taken to hospital in Reykjavik by helicopter. The person is out of danger, the Icelandic police announced on Facebook.
Two other tourists are still missing. Rescue workers assume that the two are trapped under the ice.
Complicated search
The search for the two missing people is difficult due to the many crevasses in the glacier. On Sunday evening, around 200 rescue workers tried to find the two tourists until late at night – but without success. The search continued early in the morning. According to the police spokesman, the rescue workers have not yet been able to make contact with the missing people.
Iceland’s public news broadcaster RUV reported, the rescue teams could not transport heavy material onto the glacier. They would use pickaxes, chainsaws and ice picks to try to remove the ice under which they thought the tourists were. The rescue teams work in three teams, each of which spends an hour on the glacier.
The tourists who were injured were part of a guided cave tour with 25 participants from different countries. When the cave collapsed, most of them were already outside the cave. They spent the night in an emergency shelter nearby.
According to broadcaster RUV, the nationalities of the victim and those of the missing persons were still unknown on Monday. Authorities are trying to determine the identities of the missing persons. However, there is no complete list of all participants who have registered for the tour.
Popular travel destination
The accident occurred in the southeast of Iceland, in a cave in the Breidamerkurjökull glacier. The glacier is part of the Vatnajökull National Park and is located near the Jökulsarlon glacier lagoon. The lagoon is one of Iceland’s most popular travel destinations. This is also because scenes for major Hollywood films have been shot here, including the James Bond film “Die Another Day” and Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins”.
The Breidamerkurjölull glacier is particularly popular because of its ice caves, which tourists visit all year round as part of guided tours. The Icelandic Mountain Guides Association has called on the Icelandic broadcaster RUV to investigate the incident. Stricter rules are needed as to when tours into the glacier caves can and cannot be undertaken.
The police operations manager said on television on Sunday that there was nothing to suggest that the tour should not have taken place. These tours are led by experienced mountain guides who continuously evaluate the situation. The police chief said: “This is a living country, anything can happen here.”
With agency material
