Man falls into crack caused by earthquake in Iceland, search and rescue operation on

Search and rescue authorities in Iceland are looking for a man who reportedly fell into a deep crack in Earth created after a major earthquake. The town of Grindavík witnessed a major earthquake on November 10, leading authorities to issue an evacuation notice.

According to the authorities, the missing man is a member of the roadwork crew and was assigned the task of filling the crevasse. A spokesperson of the rescue team told local media that a man was reported missing on Wednesday (Jan 10) and a search effort has been launched, but none of the man’s coworkers witnessed himfall into the crevasse.

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Notably, the tools of the missing man have already been recovered from the site where he is believed to have fallen. A crane had also been deployed and dog squads had been called in to aid the rescue efforts. A team of more than 200 people issaid to be involved in the rescue mission.

"We came to search until we find him," Úlfar Lúðvíksson, the region's police chief, told the Icelandic newspaper Morgunbladid.

According to the police, it was not clear how deep the crack was. Lúðvíksson said precautions were being taken to prevent another such incident near the crevasse.

"There are two men who go down in a basket at a time and stay down for about 10 minutes. Then they come up and the other two take over," Lúðvíkssonexplainedwhy the rescue efforts were taking so much time.

The town is located near the path of an approximately 9.3-mile-long vertical intrusion of magma in the Earth's crust, that is thought to be fed by a horizontal intrusion causing crustal uplift around the nearby geothermal power plant at Svartsengi.

Magma in the vertical dike pushed through to the surface on December 18, causing lava to shoot up to 650 feet into the air. Five vents opened up when the eruption initially occurred, with the closest around 1.7 miles from Grindavik.

(With inputs from agencies)