A Swedish tourist has been found dead on the Sólheimajökull glacier, the police were able to confirm, after a multi-day search for him drew to a conclusion this afternoon. The confirmation was released in a statement ICE-SAR, the Icelandic search and rescue service.

Daniel Markus Hoij lay dead when the search and rescue team discovered him on the glacier at 11:55 today, at an altitude of 600m. More than 300 search and rescue workers were taking part in the search at any one time, 80 of which were on the glacier itself. Over the past few days, the search has been particularly intensive and over 500 people from ICE-SAR have participated since it began on Wednesday evening.

Hoij had contacted the search and rescue team on his mobile phone whilst on the glacier, which ran out of battery during in the phone call. The conversation lasted for 3 minutes 58 seconds, and emergency services were unable to get through to the phone again. Hoij was said to be particularly shaken during the call, and was unable to give any exact information on his location.

Residents and companies in the area have been supporting the search and rescue team. The women’s institutes Fjallkonan, Eygló and Freyja opened a rest and food centre for the workers in a schoolhouse in Skógar which was open around the clock.

The institutes opened the centre as a way of showing gratitude for the help ICE-SAR has provided during recent volcanic eruptions. Hotels and guesthouses have also opened their doors for the workers, companies have donated food and the Red Cross in Hvolsvöllur oversaw logistics in the search area.

ICE-SAR would like to register their gratitude to all of those who came to help in the operation. The Hvolsvöllur police force would also like to register its gratitude to the ICE-SAR team, Icelandic Coastguard workers and all those who have worked around the clock over the past few days. Conditions during the search were particularly bad and required specialist knowledge of those who participated.

Source and image: mbl.is (1), mbl.is (2)

Labels: Accidents, Tourism

An Icelandic Coast Guard helicopter was called out last night after a cow attacked a woman. The attack took place at the farm in Kálfafell, directly east of Kirkjubæjarklaustur in south Iceland. The woman was injured badly enough to warrant calling out the helicopter, which promptly took her to the hospital in Fossvogur.

The woman was descended upon in an animal enclosure at the farm, which is in Vestur-Skaftafell county. She was badly wounded after the incident. No witness was present when the incident occurred, so little is known about the events leading up to the attack.

No further information about the condition of the woman has been released yet. The image is unrelated to the story.

Source: mbl.is
Image: Neil D’Cruze

Labels: Accidents

A fire was discovered this morning at the Frón biscuit factory at Tunguháls, in the Reykjavík suburb of Árbær, at 10:42 AM. According to the fire brigade, the first notification of the blaze said that looked to be a serious one, and therefore all crews were activated.

Just as the first crew arrived at the scene of the fire, it was evident that the response could be curtailed as it was discovered that the fire was restricted to one machine in the factory. According to the fire brigade, there was little chance of the fire spreading further.

The fire was quickly taken under control, and was extinguished with handheld fire extinguishers to limit the damage on the factory floor. At the moment, work is being carried out to free the factory of smoke.

How exactly the fire started is still uncertain, and the machine that was on fire has been damaged. There is no evidence of further damage to other parts of the factory, as the fire was extremely local. There have been no reported injuries.

Source: mbl.is
Image: david.nikonvscanon

Labels: Accidents, Fire