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A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted on Thursday for the third time since December, spraying streams of lava up to 80 meters (260 feet) into the air and triggering an emergency warning as thousands of households lost heating in the middle of winter.
Bright orange molten rock spewed from cracks in the ground in the Reykjanes peninsula and lava crossed a road near the Blue Lagoon – a luxury geothermal spa – which had to close due to the eruption.
The intensity of the outbreak had eased by Thursday afternoon, said the Icelandic Met Office which is tasked with monitoring volcanoes.
Still, the lava flow hit water pipes in the region just south of the capital, disrupting the supply of geothermally-heated water used to warm homes and leading the Civil Protection Agency to raise its alert level to emergency status.
Reykjavik’s Keflavik Airport also lost access to hot water but said it had otherwise maintained operations as usual.
The temperature in the area stood at -7 degrees Celsius (19 degrees Fahrenheit) and was forecast to drop to -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) in the evening.
Rikke Pedersen, who heads the Nordic Volcanological Centre research group based in Reykjavik, said more than 20,000 people had lost access to hot water.
