By Leila Nezirevic
LONDON (AA) – Scientists in Iceland warned on Friday that the risk of a massive volcanic eruption in the coming days remains "high," with the potential to destroy the town of Grindavik.
“Signs of shallowing micro-seismic activity and sudden slippage are being monitored, which may be signs that magma is making its way to the surface,” said the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
Iceland’s biggest bulldozer is making its way to help build volcano defenses in the town of Grindavik, which could be destroyed by the volcano, said the met office.
The Nordic country has declared a state of emergency as the volcano is expected to erupt in the next few days, potentially resulting in massive ash clouds, according to local media.
Thousands of people have already been evacuated from the region over the weekend after the Nordic country was hit by a series of earthquakes that have since continued.
The met office warned that the tremors could disrupt the Fagradalsfjall volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula.
Residents were given only five minutes to collect their essential belongings as anything left behind could be destroyed by the eruption, local media reported.
Jon Thor Viglundsson of the Icelandic Civil Defense told Sky News that people left in a hurry, forgetting to take important things like “passports, photo albums, their personal computers, maybe hard disks with irreplaceable pictures and stuff like that.”
"This is what we're focusing on now. Everything else is replaceable," he added.
Viglundsson, however, warned that this operation needs to be done “swiftly” and that staying inside the area should be “as short time as possible.”
Since October, over a thousand minor earthquakes have been recorded on Iceland's southwest Reykjanes Peninsula.