Iceland volcano: Essex couple in a taxi witness eruption on holiday

Lorraine and John Crawford, from Essex, were in Reykjavik on a family holiday

A couple on holiday in Iceland said "it was crazy" to see a volcano erupting before their eyes.

Lorraine Crawford, 67, and her 70-year-old husband John, from Essex, were on a trip with family to Reykjavik.

The group were in a taxi to Keflavik International Airport on Sunday when they saw the volcano eruption in the distance but thought it was a fire.

It was the second time the volcano, near the town of Grindavik, had erupted in less than a month.

'Really loud noise'

Members of the community were previously evacuated from their homes in November for a period of six weeks, before a series of earthquakes led to another eruption on 18 December 2023.

"It's alarming in a way - it's quite exciting to see something like that but then you realise that this could do quite a lot of damage," Mrs Crawford, who runs a travel agency with her husband and their daughter, said.

"We thought it was just a fire in the distance but [the taxi driver] said it was the actual volcano erupting."

She added they heard a "really loud noise" and a "really loud rumble" from the airport, but they were not sure what had caused it.

Lava and smoke had spewed from the volcano since its latest eruption on Sunday

Mrs Crawford also said their taxi driver told the group he lived "not far" from the volcano.

"He told us he was home one morning and looked out of his kitchen window and thought it was a fire - but it wasn't, it was the volcano erupting," she said.

"He also said on his way to the airport this morning there was nothing and on his way back obviously we could see it, the red in the distance - it was crazy.

"Thankfully we weren't that close."