Relief in Iceland as no more tourists trapped under ice

August 27, 2024 - 1:24 PM
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Rescue teams work on Breidamerkurjokull glacier, where an ice cave collapsed while being explored by tourists, in Iceland, August 26, 2024. (Stod 2/Vilhelm Gunnarsson/Handout via Reuters)

Police in Iceland called off a search for missing persons under a glacier on Monday and said earlier reports that two tourists had been trapped there were wrong.

One person was killed and one injured on Sunday when a natural ice cave collapsed as a group of tourists explored it, but fears that two others were trapped were based on a misunderstanding, authorities said.

Police were told the group consisted of 25 people, but later concluded only 23 had taken part.

An extensive search for missing persons that began on Sunday and continued on Monday was therefore called off.

The nationalities of those involved were not immediately disclosed.

The incident took place on Breidamerkurjokull in southern Iceland, part of Western Europe’s largest glacier Vatnajokul.

—Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, editing by Terje Solsvik, Bernadette Baum and Barbara Lewis