Three Britons killed in Iceland bridge crash

THREE BRITISH tourists, including a child, have died after the 4x4 they were in crashed off a bridge in Iceland.

The accident happened at about 9.30am yesterday when the Toyota Land Cruiser carrying seven passengers crashed through a railing of a one-lane bridge in the south of the country before falling more than 25ft onto a river bank.

Police said one child was among the dead and two more children were among those who were injured in the crash.

The 4x4 was being driven on a bridge about 328 yards long on the national Route 1 road near Skeidararsandur, a vast sand plain in southern Iceland.

The four injured survivors were airlifted to hospital in the capital Reykjavik with serious injuries.

Police said they were not sure when they would be able to question them about how the driver lost control of the vehicle.

A police spokesman said the road was not thought to be icy but humidity could have made the surface slippery for the SUV.

The car was being driving eastbound over the bridge in Nupsvotn, just south of the Vatnajokull glacier.

Confirming that the four injured had been taken to hospital, Chief Superintendent of south Iceland Police, Sveinn Kristjan Runarsson, said: “We haven’t been able to talk to them about what happened.”

He said it was not clear whether the seven people were related.

Tour guide Adolf Erlingsson, who was among the first on the scene, said: “It was horrible. The car seemed to have hit the ground many metres from where

it stopped. We struggled getting everyone out.”

Mr Erlingsson said the SUV was a “total wreck” when he arrived. “Four people were out of the car, one of them deceased, Then there were three people trapped in the car and I think two of them were deceased.

“The driver was alive and trapped more or less under the dashboard. It was a horrible sight to come there and see the wreckage and people there.”

He said rescuers used a winch and another SUV to lift the car up and try to save the driver.

Mr Erlingsson added: “We were trying to get the people out of the car and helping them. It was a very difficult situation.

“Soon after I arrived, we had an SUV with a winch and we used it to lift the car up a little bit to alleviate the pressure on the driver and to try and get him out.”

He said he spoke to some people who were “semi-conscious” outside the vehicle, and added: “I tried to talk a bit to the driver to calm him down. He was trapped inside the car.”

Mr Erlingsson said the crash occurred in an area that was “the most popular destination on the south coast”.

The crash happened just south of Skaftafell National Park, part of the Vatnajokull National Park, which has been nominated for inclusion in Unesco’s World Heritage List.

The Vatnajokull glacier is the largest in Europe, covering eight per cent of Iceland’s landmass including the island’s tallest peak Hvannadalshnjukur at 7,218ft.

Tourists flock to the area to enjoy hiking, camping and sightseeing flights.

South of the national park is the Skeidararsandur, a vast sand plain formed from alluvial deposits, with little vegetation, with the Nupsvotn glacial lakes on its western boundary.