火山噴火の恐れで避難の住民、数分間の一時帰還　アイスランド

【グリンダビークＡＦＰ＝時事】アイスランド南西部の町で、火山噴火の恐れがあるとして住民に避難指示が出されている。当局は１３日、住民に自宅への一時帰還が認められたと明らかにした。（写真は資料写真）
　約４０００人が暮らすグリンダビークでは、地下でマグマが広がっており、地震が続いている。複数の専門家が火山噴火の可能性を警告し、１１日未明に避難指示が出された。
　アイスランドには３３の活火山がある。当局は非常事態を宣言し、近隣の町に避難所と支援センターを開設した。
　ＡＦＰ記者は首都レイキャビクから南西へ４０キロ離れたグリンダビークで、地震活動により道路や建物に被害が出ている様子を目にした。
　警察や市民保護当局が警戒に当たる中、住民は貴重品を取りに数分間だけ自宅に戻ることが許された。
　ＡＦＰ記者によると、住民は家具や絵画などを車いっぱいに積んで持ち出していた。中には、羊を運び出している人もいたという。
　ある住民は１２日、「絶望し、気が動転し、悲しんでいる。自分の家を築こうと費やしてきた時間や労力を思うと、ただ悲しい」と話した。
　英ランカスター大学の火山学者、デービッド・マッガービー氏は、こうした避難はまれだと話す。
　マッガービー氏によると、「アイスランドで大規模な集落全体が避難したのは、５０年前の１９７３年にヘイマエイ島で起きた噴火以来」だという。
　グリンダビークは、ファグラダールスフィヤットル火山があるレイキャネース半島に位置している。
　ファグラダールスフィヤットル近郊では、２０２１年３月、２２年８月、２３年７月に噴火が発生。ただし、いずれもインフラ施設や市街地から離れた地点だった。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/11/15-15:28）

From Christmas gifts to sheep, residents forced from an Icelandic town damaged by hundreds of earthquakes in recent days were able to briefly return on Monday to retrieve their belongings, authorities said.
The southwestern town of Grindavik -- home to around 4,000 people -- was evacuated in the early hours of Saturday after magma shifting under the Earth's crust caused hundreds of earthquakes in what experts warned could be a precursor to a volcanic eruption.
The seismic activity damaged roads and buildings in the town situated 40 kilometres (25 miles) southwest of the capital Reykjavik, an AFP journalist saw.
Many roads are just wrecked. It's like a maze that you have to drive through, Johannes Daoi Johannesson, 34, told AFP on returning to the town.
I was basically here just to empty my house as much as I could and take the essentials, he said, along with something for the kids, Christmas presents.
After waiting for hours in their cars, residents could enter their homes for just a few minutes to collect their valuables, with Icelandic police and civil protection vehicles on standby.
We ask everyone to take as short a time as possible, the country's emergency response department said in a statement, adding that it was limiting numbers to two people per vehicle.
- 'Considerable uncertainty' -
An AFP journalist at the scene saw people filling their cars to the brim, with residents taking furniture, paintings and even sheep.
We are a little bit desperate, a little bit paralysed and sad, actually. If you start to think about all the time and energy you have put in building up your home, it's just sad, Hans Wierer, a local resident, said on Sunday.
Iceland, which has 33 active volcanic systems, has declared a state of emergency, with shelters and help centres opened in several nearby towns.
We have a fissure that's about 15 kilometres long, and anywhere on that fissure we can see that an eruption could happen, Vidir Reynisson, head of Iceland's Civil Protection and Emergency Management agency, told AFP on Saturday.
Such evacuations do not happen often, according to David McGarvie, a volcanologist at the University of Lancaster.
The last evacuation of an entire sizeable settlement in Iceland occurred 50 years ago during the 1973 eruption on the island of Heimaey off the south coast of Iceland, he said.
The displaced people of Grindavik will be understandably anxious because there is considerable uncertainty over the future of their town.
Grindavik is on the country's southwestern Reykjanes peninsula, home to the Fagradalsfjall volcano.
Three eruptions have taken place near Fagradalsfjall, in March 2021, August 2022 and July 2023 -- all far from any infrastructure or populated areas.