Volcano erupts in southwest Iceland posing risk to fishing town

A volcano erupted in southwest Iceland on Sunday, posing an immediate threat to a nearby small fishing town although it had been evacuated earlier and no people were in danger, authorities said.

Early-morning video footage from the site showed fountains of molten rock spewing from fissures in the ground, the bright orange lava flow glowing against the dark sky.

"No lives are in danger, although infrastructure may be under threat," Iceland's President Gudni Johannesson said on social media site X, adding there had been no interruptions to flights.

The eruption began early on Sunday north of the town of Grindavik, which the previous day had been evacuated for the second time in a month over fears that an outbreak was imminent amid a swarm of seismic activity, authorities said.

Authorities have been building barriers of earth and rock in recent weeks to try to prevent lava from reaching Grindavik, some 40 km southwest of the capital Reykjavik, but the latest eruption appeared to have penetrated the town's defences.

"According to the first images from the Coast Guard's surveillance flight, a crack has opened on both sides of the defences that have begun to be built north of Grindavík," the Icelandic Meteorological Office IMO said.

Lava was flowing towards the town and had come within an estimated 450 metres, the IMO said.

Based on flow models, it could take the lava a few hours to reach Grindavik if it continued to flow towards the town, an IMO spokesperson told public broadcaster RUV.

It was the second volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland in less than one month and the fifth outbreak since 2021.

Last month, an eruption started in the Svartsengi volcanic system on December 18 following the complete evacuation of Grindavik's 4,000 residents and the closing of the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, a popular tourist spot.

More than 100 Grindavik residents had returned in recent weeks, before Saturday's renewed evacuation order, according to local authorities.