UPDATE - Volcano erupts on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula

UPDATES WITH REMARKS FROM ICELAND'S PRESIDENT, FOREIGN MINISTER, REVISES DECK

By Servet Gunerigok and Nur Asena Erturk

WASHINGTON (AA) - A volcano began erupting on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula, the Icelandic Meteorological Office said.

"At 22:17 this evening, a volcanic eruption began north of Grindavik on the Reykjanes peninsula," the office said in a press release.

"The eruption is located close to Sundhnúkagígar, about four kilometers northeast of Grindavik, and it can be seen on nearby web cameras," it said.

The eruption began following an earthquake that started around an hour earlier.

"Civil Defence has closed off the affected area," Iceland's President Gudni Thorlacius Johannesson wrote on X.

He assured that the authorities were "prepared and remain vigilant."

Foreign Minister Bjarni Benediktsson said that there were no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland and international flight corridors remain open.

Hjordis Gudmundsdottir, information officer at the country's Civil Protection Agency, asked residents to not go to the site and said the eruption would not be clear until a helicopter flew over the site.

"At first glance, it seems larger than the last eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula," Gudmundsdottir told Iceland Monitor.

The eruption is reportedly the fourth in three years on the peninsula.