Iceland’s Grindavik is on high alert as a massive lava eruption from a nearby volcano has locals fleeing for safety.

The Icelandic Met Office recorded increased seismic activity near the Sundhnukar craters on the Reykjanes peninsula, indicating imminent eruptions and encouraging people to leave their homes in Grindavík and the Blue Lagoon. Experts from the Icelandic Met Office have now confirmed everyone’s worst fears with an eruption spewing fiery jets sky-high. Lava is said to be shooting “at least 50 metres” up in the air, with a crater stretching over a kilometre long.

They explained: “An eruption has started near Sundhnuk and seems to be located northeast of Sylingafell. The jets reach a height of at least 50 metres and the length of the crater appears to be over 1 kilometre. The Coast Guard helicopter was taking off to determine the exact location and size of the eruption. More information will be available soon.” Earlier, they’d dropped a bombshell warning: “A magma run has begun. All signals seen in the run-up to previous eruptions are now visible on measuring instruments. Local and intense microseismic activity, pressure variation in boreholes and deformation signals on GPS meters. There is an increased chance that this magma flow will lead to an eruption.” Icelandic geologists have registered an increase in small earthquakes near the dormant volcanic zone, leading to fears that the long-dormant fault line running under the country has reactivated and could lead to an ongoing period of tremors, reports the Mirror.

The uptick in seismic activity follows the end of an eruption on May 9, which destroyed hot water pipes and left 20,000 residents without heating. Around 400 earthquakes have been recorded in the past week, including a 2.2 magnitude tremor at Sundhnuk. “Yesterday, close to 100 earthquakes were recorded in the area, and so far today, almost 70 earthquakes have been recorded,” said the Met Office on Tuesday. “Since the end of the eruption, on May 9, most days between 40 and 60 earthquakes have been recorded, but on occasional days around 80 earthquakes, with the exception of May 24 and 25 when considerably fewer earthquakes were recorded due to strong winds. Therefore, there seems to be a visible increase in the number of earthquakes since yesterday.”

A state of emergency was declared after a fissure opened near Grindavik. Experts are concerned that the increase in seismic activity could signal the start of a prolonged period of eruptions.

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