Avalanche Kills 19 in Iceland
An avalanche of snow roared through a village in northwestern Iceland before dawn Thursday, killing 19 people and sweeping homes off their foundations.
By nightfall Thursday, 10 people had been rescued and a 1-year-old girl was still missing in the coastal village of Flateyri, about 150 miles north of Reykjavik, civil defense worker Johannes Reykdal said.
“This is a tragedy that concerns everyone in Iceland,” civil defense spokesman Hjortur Hjarturson said. “We are such a small country, everyone’s like family.”
He said four of those rescued with the most serious injuries were flown by helicopter to hospitals in Reykjavik and elsewhere. Others who were injured and those left homeless were taken to a makeshift hospital set up in the Kambur fish-processing plant.
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