Iceland police say 1 American tourist dead, 1 injured in ice cave collapse

Reykjavik, Iceland — One U.S. tourist was killed and another seriously injured when part of an ice cave collapsed in southeast Iceland as their tour group visited the area, police said Monday. A group of 23 people of “several nationalities” were on an organized tour of the glacier Breidamerkurjokull together with a guide when part of the structure collapsed, the Southern Iceland Police said in a statement.

The police had earlier said that two people remained missing after the collapse, but in their later statement they said the tour operator had provided inaccurate information and that all of those involved in the incident had been accounted for. 

The police force for the Sudurland region said it was an American couple hit by the collapsing ice, and that the man was killed and the woman was transported by helicopter to a regional hospital where she was in a stable condition. The police said her injuries were not life-threatening.

Rescue services launched a search operation for the two people initially believed to be missing Sunday and that work continued into Monday, but the police said after clearing away the fallen ice they had confirmed nobody else was at the site and the operation was called off.

The glacier where the accident happened is near the glacial lagoon Jokulsarlon, one of Iceland’s more popular tourist destinations.

Iceland is a geologically restive nation, home to multiple active volcanoes that cause regular disruption with eruptions of toxic gas, ash and lava.

On Friday, Icelandic authorities said a second fissure had formed on the southwestern Reykjanes peninsula after lava started spewing forth for the sixth time in the region since December. After weeks of warnings, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said a new eruption had started the previous evening following a series of earthquakes.

Video showed orange lava bursting out of a long fissure, which the IMO estimated to be 2.4 miles.