Authorities evacuated hundreds of people after a volcano erupted beneath a glacier in southern Iceland, Iceland’s civil protection agency said Sunday.
The eruption occurred around 11:30 p.m. Saturday beneath the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, the fifth largest glacier in Iceland.The volcano is covered by an ice cap.
Fearing flooding from the glacier melt, authorities evacuated some 400 people in the area 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of the capital, Reykjavik, as a precaution but no damage or injuries have been reported, said Vidir Reynisson, the department manager for the Icelandic Civil Protection Department.
A state of emergency has been declared in communities near the 100 square mile (160 kilometers) glacier.
“We do not at this moment know the full extent of the eruption but a team is flying over the site now to evaluate the situation,” said Reynisson.
A European volcanic island in the North Atlantic, Iceland is largely an arctic desert with mountains, glaciers and volcanoes and agricultural areas in the lowlands close to the coastline.
The last time the volcano erupted was in the 1820s.