THE NEW POMPEII?

Icelandic town fears being wiped out by volcano after 800 quakes cause havoc

- LUCY THORNTON

SCARED residents living with the threat of a catastrophic volcanic eruption in Iceland fear it could leave their town entombed in lava.

Around 4,000 people evacuated Grindavik in the dead of night last Friday as the town was rocked by earthquakes.

More than 800 quakes and thousands of tremors have since been recorded and a state of emergency declared.

At police checkpoints set up around the dangerous "red zone", there is an ominous smell of sulphur dioxide, showing magma is near the surface.

Anne Sigurdsson, 66, a British expat, lives 15 minutes away and said it all felt "too damn close for comfort". Anne moved to Iceland from Carlisle, Cumbria, seven years ago with husband Siggi, 63. She said: "This island could be ripped apart. We fear Grindavik could end up frozen in time like Pompeii.

"On Friday afternoon it was like shake, rattle and roll' here. You hear the quake before you feel it, it's like thunder in the ground. Everything was shaking and the house was creaking.

"It was like being inside one of those snow globes and being shaken around."

Iceland's biggest bulldozer has arrived to build a 3.5-mile ditch and earth mounds to stop the lava if it comes. A wall is being built to protect the Svartsengi geothermal power plant, which is just 4km from Grindavik.

Only emergency workers are now allowed inside the red zone. Kristjan Rargrarssan, a search and rescue worker holding the list of who is allowed in, told us: "It is the red zone, the area with the most earthquakes, cracks and the most volcanic activity.