Police in Iceland call off search at ice cave collapse that killed 1 man, saying no one is missing

A group of 23 foreign tourists were on an organised tour of the glacier Breidamerkurjokull with a guide when the cave collapsed on Sunday

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Rescue teams at the scene after an ice cave partially collapsed at the Breidamerkurjokull glacier in southeastern Iceland on Monday. Photo: TOD2 / Vilhelm Gunnarsson via AP

Published: 1:39pm, 26 Aug 2024Updated: 4:08am, 27 Aug 2024

Icelandic police on Monday called off the search for anyone trapped in the previous day’s collapse of an ice cave that killed one person and injured another, saying that all members of the tourist expedition had been accounted for.

Authorities had initially mounted a large-scale rescue operation, with as many as 200 rescuers sifting through the icy rubble by hand to find two people believed to have been missing.

But police eventually determined that no one was unaccounted for after examining the tour operator’s records and finding that only 23 people were on the ice cave tour, not 25 as was first believed. Even so, rescuers continued the search until all of the collapsed ice had been moved to be sure that no one had been left behind.

“The police field manager located at the scene announced that all the ice that was thought to have fallen on the people had been moved,” police said. “It has come to light that no one [was] hidden under the ice.’’

The rescue operation began around 3pm local time on Sunday when authorities received reports that an ice cave had collapsed at the Breidamerkurjokull glacier in southeastern Iceland. One man died at the scene and a woman was taken to hospital in Reykjavik, the capital, by helicopter. Both victims are American citizens, police said.

The search, which was suspended overnight when conditions made it too dangerous, had resumed at about 7am, Icelandic broadcaster RUV reported. Video showed rescuers working inside two large craters surrounded by the sand-blackened ice of the Breidamerkurjokull glacier.