An emergency alert has been issued in Iceland after a volcanic eruption this morning sent fast-flowing lava spewing towards a nearby fishing village.
An urgent evacuation has been ordered for the town of Grindavik.
Iceland in recent weeks sought to build barriers of earth and rock to prevent lava from reaching Grindavik, but the latest eruption appeared to have penetrated the defences.
"According to the first images from the Coast Guard's surveillance flight, a crack has opened on both sides of the defences that have begun to be built north of Grindavík," the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said in a statement.
Fountains of lava has started spewing out the top of the volcanoREUTERS"Lava is now flowing towards Grindavík.
"Based on measurements from the Coast Guard's helicopter, the perimeter is now about 450 metres (1,500 feet) from the northernmost houses in the town."
Early-morning live streams from the site showed fountains of molten rock spewing from fissures in the ground, the bright orange lava flow glowing against the dark sky.
The eruption comes less than a month after the last activity from the volcano.
Huge billows of smoke have filled the sky with ash during the eruption
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An evacuation has been ordered for a nearby town
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On December 18 a major eruption led to more than 100 people being evacuated from their homes.
Residents had only recently started to move back in when they new eruption occurred.
Iceland's civil protection agency on Sunday said it had raised its alert level to "emergency", the highest on a three-level scale, signalling an event had begun that could cause harm to people, communities, property or the environment.
Lying between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates, two of the largest on the planet, Iceland is a seismic and volcanic hot spot as the two plates move in opposite directions.
There have been five eruptions in the last two years from the volcano.
Iceland averages an eruption every four to five years.
