Rescue teams at the scene after an ice cave partially collapsed Monday at the Breidamerkurjokull glacier in southeastern Iceland. STOD2/ Vilhelm Gunnarsson via AP
LONDON -- Police in Iceland called off a search Monday for two tourists initially believed missing after the collapse of an ice cave that killed one person and seriously injured another, saying they now believe no one is missing.
Icelandic authorities said they called off the search after examining the tour operator's records and determining that only 23 people were on the trip, not 25 as was first believed.
One person was killed and one person was seriously injured Sunday when the cave collapsed shortly before 3 p.m. local time. Both victims are American citizens, police said. Two other people were also struck by falling ice.
"A moment ago, the police field manager located at the scene announced that all the ice that was thought to have fallen on the people had been moved," police said. "It has come to light that no one (was) hidden under the ice."
Rescue teams at the scene after an ice cave partially collapsed Monday at the Breidamerkurjokull glacier in southeastern Iceland. STOD2/ Vilhelm Gunnarsson via AP
Rescuers had worked by hand to cut through the remnants of the collapsed ice cave as they searched for those they had believed to be missing.
The search, which was suspended overnight when conditions made it too dangerous, had resumed at about 7 a.m., Icelandic broadcaster RUV reported. Video showed rescuers working inside two large craters surrounded by the sand-blackened ice of the Breidamerkurjokull glacier.
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"We have three teams that take turns, working for an hour at a time scooping and breaking down ice," Sveinn Rúnar Kristjánsson, the local police chief, told RUV at the time. "Meanwhile, of course, we're still in this investigative work, figuring out who might be down there under the ice. This work continues."
But by the end of the day, authorities were satisfied that a mistake had been made in record keeping and that no one else was missing.
Police said there had been "misleading information" about the number of people on the trip. Based on what initially was available, it was deemed necessary to continue the search until rescuers could be assured no one was under the ice, police said.
The Association of Icelandic Mountain Guides on Sunday called for a full investigation and tighter regulations on ice cave tours. Glacier trips during the warmer summer months can be very dangerous, the association said.
Ice caves are a popular destination for visitors to Iceland, with tour operators offering customers the chance to "explore the insides of glaciers" and see the blue color and "stunning patterns" in the ice.
"This is a terrible event that you don't want anyone to go through,'' Garðar Hrafn Sigurjónsson, the association's vice-chairman, told local news site Visir. "We regret this terrible accident on the Breiðamerkurjökull, both me personally and the association."
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Visir said the group that was at the cave during the collapse was on an organized tour accompanied by a guide. Most of the visitors were outside the cave when it came down, it reported.
Glaciers cover about 11% of Iceland, an island nation in the north Atlantic that sits on the southern edge of the Arctic Circle. The largest is Vatnajokull, which covers 3,050 square miles. Breidamerkurjokull is a tongue of Vatnajokull that ends at the Jokulsarlon Lagoon, where icebergs constantly break off from the glacier.
Moving rescue equipment and personnel up to the glacier was difficult due to the rugged terrain, and rescuers had to cut through the ice using chainsaws.
The glacier is about 185 miles from a volcano that erupted Friday on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwestern Iceland.
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