The incident took place on Sunday near of the Jökulsárlón ice lagoonan extremely popular place among tourists visiting Iceland.
Iceland. One tourist dead, two others trapped under ice
A group of 25 foreigners visited one of the ice caves located on Breidamerkurjökull glacier. They were accompanied by an experienced mountain guide.
According to information provided by the local police, some of the tourists were in the gorge between the cave entrances when they were unexpectedly a wall of ice collapsed on them.
As a result of the incident one of the tourists diedthe other was injured. The injured person was taken to hospital. Two members of the group are still under the ice.the search for them continues.
Local police chief on tourist accident: “You can always get unlucky”
The rescue operation, in which about 200 people were involved, did not bring the expected results. Due to the lack of appropriate equipment for removing ice, no contact could be made with the missing tourists. All work was to be done “by hand”, using chain saws.
The local police chief, Sveinn Kristján Rúnarsson, was quoted by the BBC as saying that the circumstances at the scene are not conducive to searching. At the same time, he denied that the conditions disqualified the trip from taking place.
– Visits to ice caves take place almost all year round (…) The trips are led by experienced and reliable mountain guides. You can always be unlucky (…) It is a “living” land, anything can happen – he argued.
Due to darkness and poor visibility, the rescue operation was suspended until Monday. It resumed at 7:00 a.m.
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