Iceland: Melting lava flows to the edge of a small fishing town in Iceland have caused homes to be engulfed by the eruption of a volcano.
Live footage aired on public television on Sunday showed at least three houses set on fire as lava reached the edge of the port of Grindavik.
There were no reports of fatalities or injuries, and there was no disruption to air travel. Mr. Gudni Johannesson, the president of Iceland, called the catastrophe a “black day” for his nation.
“No lives are in danger, although infrastructure may be under threat,” Mr. Johannesson shared on X.
Following a string of minor earthquakes that forced the town’s 4,000 residents to evacuate, the eruption happened shortly before 8 am local time (8:00 GMT), according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
As of 6.45 pm, the Meteorological Office reported that a fissure that had formed in the ground approximately 450 metres (500 yards) from Grindavik on Sunday morning had grown to a length of approximately 900 metres (984 yards).
According to the office, a second fissure opened up on the outskirts of town at midday and measured roughly 100 metres (109 yards) by the evening.
This is the fifth volcanic eruption in less than three years for the North Atlantic nation, and the second time the volcano located southwest of the capital Reykjavik has erupted in less than a month.
Large earth cracks appeared in November, causing the evacuation of Grindavik ahead of the December 18 eruption.
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