Reykjavik, Iceland — One person has died and two others are still missing a day after an ice cave collapsed in southeast Iceland while a tour group was visiting the area, police said Monday. A group of 25 people of “multiple 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 had been found.
On Sunday, police in Sudurland said the two recovered people were seriously injured, but added in a later statement early Monday that one of them had been “pronounced dead at the scene”.
The other person was taken to hospital by helicopter and was in a “stable” condition.
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The emergency services began a search operation for the two missing on Sunday and continued the search on Monday.
“A large number of rescuers and emergency personnel have taken part in the operation,” police said, adding that conditions were “difficult”.
Authorities decided to temporarily suspend the search Sunday night when it became too dark and it was no longer considered safe.
The glacier where the accident occurred is located near the Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon, one of Iceland’s more popular tourist destinations.
Iceland is a geologically troubled nation, home to several active volcanoes that cause regular disturbances with eruptions of toxic gas, ash and lava.
On Friday, Icelandic authorities said a second fissures had formed on the southwestern Reykjanes peninsula after lava began spewing for the sixth time in the region since December. After weeks of warnings, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said a new eruption had begun the previous evening following a series of earthquakes.
Video showed orange lava bursting from a long fissure, which the IMO estimated at 2.4 miles.