Fighting against the clock - sawing his way into the ice cave

Iceland
Two people are wanted for a collapsed ice cave - sawing up the ice

Martin Palmborg

Published 13.47

An ice cave under the Vatnajökull glacier. Photo: Getty Images

Two people are still missing after an ice cave collapsed in Iceland on Sunday.

An intensive search operation is now underway where the rescue workers are trying to remove the ice by hand.

- We have saws and wedges and such to break up the ice, says Chief of Police Sveinn Kristján.

On Monday morning, the search effort resumed after an ice cave in the Breidamerkurjökull glacier collapsed on Sunday. A tourist group of 25 people was at the cave when the accident occurred.

One person has died and another has been taken to hospital by ambulance helicopter. But two are still missing.

The rescue workers are now trying to break up the ice with, among other things, a saw.

- All this has to be done by hand, more or less. We have saws and wedges and such to break up the ice, but nothing else, says Sveinn Kristján, Chief of Police in the South, to Visir.

Replace each other every hour

Up to 60 search workers were on site at 08:00. Three different rescue teams now work in shifts and replace each other every hour to access the missing people.

- This is what the work will look like during the day. At the same time, we are trying to find out who might be down there under the ice, says Sveinn Kristján to Ruv.

The excursions to the ice caves have been criticized

The managers of Vatnajökull National Park, where the glacier is located, cannot forbid people from entering the cave.

But Garðar Sigurjónsson, who is vice-chairman of the Association of Mountain Guides in Iceland, believes that there should be clearer frameworks for when such excursions may be carried out during the year.

The organization also wants the accident to be investigated, reports Ruv.