A volcano has erupted on the Reykjanes peninsula of southwest Iceland following several earthquakes in recent weeks.
According to reports from local media outlets, molten lava was spewed through a 2.5-mile fissure, and lava is currently flowing towards surrounding towns.
Earlier this month, at least 4,000 people were evacuated from the fishing town of Grindavik, and authorities have also closed the nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal spa.
According to the latest updates, police have already declared a state of emergency in the area, as hundreds of cubic meters of lava spewed across the Reykjanes peninsula.
According to the Meteorological Office in Iceland, the eruption was recorded at 5:17 p.m. ET. The colossal eruption happened in the southwest of the island, near the Keflavik International Airport, the capital city of Reykjavik.
Meanwhile, the US embassy in Iceland has urged tourists from the nation to avoid the area surrounding the eruption and has also asked them to follow instructions from local media outlets.
Several images and videos of the eruption have been now posted on social media platforms, and they show lava bursting out from the volcano after a series of seismic activities.
Despite the chaos, the foreign minister of Iceland, Bjarni Benediktsson said on X, formerly Twitter, that there are currently no disruptions to flights to and from the country.
"This eruption is more powerful than three former eruptions in that area and it happened unusually fast. The lava flow on the ground is still in a remote area, so at this point it's not an immediate threat to the town Grindavík or the powerplant Svartsengi. But there can still be a risk of lava flow damaging infrastructure," Freysteinn Sigmundsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland, told NBC News.
Earlier this month, eleven climbers lost their lives in Indonesia as a result of the eruption of the Marapi volcano in West Sumatra.
