Iceland volcano erupts near village _ BBC News

I want to start with the breaking news out of Iceland .

As you can see from these dramatic pictures , there is a new volcanic eruption .

It has happened near the town of Grind in the southwest of Iceland .

You'll remember that this was the same town that was evacuated last month after there was an eruption .

There we are told that the lava which you can see spurting out of that Fisher , is hundreds of metres away .

Now , from the town of Greg Grind , the people who were there there were about 90 homes have been safely evacuated .

The local authorities have declared an emergency in the area .

I'm going to bring in our reporter , Megan Owen , who is in the newsroom monitoring these pictures .

Uh , Megan .

Dramatic pictures , as we can see .

Tell us how this unfolded .

Incredibly dramatic pictures yet again .

Nikki , uh , we can see glowing orange lava spewing out of that volcano north of grieve .

And reportedly it's even closer to the fishing village , uh , than the eruption back in December .

Now , as you mentioned , uh , residents were evacuated in the early hours of the morning when they an increase in seismic activity .

Local authorities have declared an emergency , and a Coast Guard helicopter is also surveying the scenes .

Now , this is not the first time , as you mentioned that residents have been evacuated .

You know , back in December , we all remember those dramatic pictures of the eruption , uh , back in grind and , uh , the whole town was evacuated .

In fact , around 4000 residents and the popular tourist spot , the Blue Lagoon , was also closed .

Now , in the time since , those residents have started to come back to their homes .

Uh , now , Well , once it was declared safer .

But now this has put a bit of a spanner in the works .

It's the fifth eruption that scientists have seen in the rec Anis Peninsula in the past three years .

They were they'd started to monitor the increase in seismic activities back in November .

Uh , and they're going to have to continue to do that now , So there's real concern .

I mean , it was a a shocking and surprising Christmas for many people living in the area back in December , and this will be a pretty surprising start to the New Year as well .

Megan , let us go live to Reykjavik now , where we can speak to Hal Grier , Indra Desson , who is a journalist with Iceland's public broadcaster RUV .

Thank you very much for joining us .

Just tell us the alert went out at 3 a.m. in the morning there .

Yes , that's true .

Then the seismic big seismic activity started close to and underneath actually grind .

So everybody was evacuated .

And since , as you said previously , there were not that many people that were staying there overnight , this took a pretty short time .

And so everyone was safely evacuated than when the eruption started .

Just before eight o'clock this morning .

We are seeing the dramatic pictures of that lava , which is been growing in the last hour that we have been watching it .

What are the authorities saying about the size of this eruption this time round ?

Well , uh , compared to the one in December , it's , uh it's not as big as that .

That that one was unusually powerful , the most powerful that had taken place since then .

Uh , but what is maybe more serious is the location .

Uh , this is closer to to grind and part of , and the fisher that formed it went through the , uh , uh , fortification that had been built and they have been building these last few weeks , which was built to prevent the lava from running to from flowing towards grind .

But then , since part of the fure is already inside the fortifications and lava is flowing towards grindel , then that is a pretty serious situation .

Yes .

So is the concern now that that lava could actually enter into grind and go over houses .

Basically , they damage , then , uh , yeah , the geologist .

What ?

One of the geology geologist of the Icelandic Meteorological Office said this morning that the flower was towards green , and if it would continue in the same speed as it currently is which , which we don't know for sure , then it would reach the North most northern part of green , probably within the next 24 hours .

And what are the authorities saying now about how concerned they are ?

Well , the authorities are really concerned , but of course , everybody is , uh , really glad that the people were safely evacuated .

Uh , but , uh , all these , uh , activities because , uh , only yesterday it was decided that the green would be evacuated from , uh , coming Monday .

That is tomorrow .

Because of , uh uh , there were fure opening , uh , throughout the throughout the town .

So , uh , I think , uh , pretty much , uh , what the authorities now need to do is just to wait and see how things evolve .

And , uh uh , maybe the most important thing is to secure proper housing for the inhabitants that had to evacuate their homes .

Their future is very uncertain now , OK , the good news .

At least they were able to evacuate safely .

Hal Grimmer inden from RUV , Iceland's public broadcaster .

Thank you very much for joining us .