Update | Blue Lagoon Iceland spa guests flee in ‘panic’, state of emergency declared, as earthquakes raise fears of volcanic eruption
- Guests at one of Iceland’s top tourist attractions, the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, flee in confusion after earthquakes stoke concern a volcano will erupt
- Hundreds of small earthquakes a day have hit the area, prompting the Icelandic government to declare a state of emergency
One of Iceland’s biggest tourist attractions, the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, has closed temporarily as a swarm of earthquakes put the island nation’s most populated region on alert for a possible volcanic eruption.
Guests rushed to leave the spa’s hotels in the early hours of Thursday, after they were shaken awake shortly before 1am by a magnitude 4.8 quake, the strongest to hit the region since the recent wave of seismic activity began on October 25.
Bjarni Stefansson, a taxi driver, described a scene of confusion when he arrived at the Retreat Hotel, where lava rocks had fallen on the road and the car park was jammed with 20 to 30 cabs.
“There was a panic situation,” Stefansson said. “People thought a volcanic eruption was about to happen.”
The area around Mount Thorbjorn, on the Reykjanes Peninsula, has been shaken by hundreds of small earthquakes every day for more than two weeks because of a build-up of volcanic magma some 5km (3.1 miles) underground.
