Lava spewed Saturday from a new volcanic fissure on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula, the fourth eruption to hit the area since December, authorities said.
A "volcanic eruption has started between stora Skogfell and Hagafell on the Reykjanes Peninsula," said a statement from the Icelandic Met Office. Live video images showed glowing lava and billowing smoke.
Iceland's Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management announced it had sent a helicopter to narrow down the exact location of the new fissure.
Minutes before the eruption, the IMO had issued a statement saying that seismic activity indicated that there was an increased chance of an eruption.
The roughly 4,000 residents of Grindavik had only been cleared to return to their homes on Feb. 19 after having been evacuated on Nov. 11, 2023.
On that occasion, hundreds of tremors damaged buildings and opened up huge cracks in roads.
The quakes were followed by a volcanic fissure on Dec. 18 that spared the village.
But a crack opened right on the town's edge in January, causing lava to flow into the streets and destroying three homes, followed by a third eruption near the village on Feb. 8.
Iceland boasts 33 active volcano systems, the highest number in Europe.
It straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a fissure in the ocean floor that separates the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.
However, prior to March 2021, the Reykjanes peninsula had not witnessed an eruption for eight centuries.
Subsequent eruptions took place in August 2022, and in July and December 2023, prompting volcanologists to suggest that it marked the beginning of a new era of seismic activity in the region.
