Iceland volcano erupts again

Grindavik : A volcano in southwestern Iceland erupted on Thursday for the third time since December, sending jets of lava into the sky and triggering the evacuation of the Blue Lagoon spa, one of the island nation’s biggest tourist attractions.

The eruption began at about 0600 GMT (1 am EST) along a three-km (nearly two-mile) fissure northeast of Mount S lingarfell, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said. Several communities on the Reykjanes Peninsula were cut off from heat and hot water after a river of lava engulfed a supply pipeline.

The eruption site is about 4 km (2 miles) northeast of Grindavik, a coastal town of 3,800 people that was evacuated before a previous eruption on Dec 18. The Meteorological Office said there was no immediate threat to the town on Thursday.

Civil defence officials said no one was believed to be in Grindavik at the time of the new eruption. “They weren’t meant to be, and we don’t know about any,” V ir Reynisson, the head of Iceland’s Civil Defence, told national broadcaster RUV.