Nearly 300 German tourists had a bit of a scare when four tour buses got stuck in icy slopes in Seyðisfjörður, East Iceland, on Monday.
The group arrived with the Norræna ferry to Seyðisfjörður and went for a daytrip around the area in four coaches operated by its German travel agency.
Upon returning, the bus drivers found the steep mountain road leading down to fjord Seyðisfjörður too icy and their vehicles not equipped for such driving conditions.
The German tour operator asked for assistance of local Search and Rescue teams around 18:00 on Monday. The SAR teams transported the people in stages down to the ferry, an operation which took over five hours.
“The weather as such was fine but those coaches were not equipped to drive in icy conditions,” SAR regional director Guðjón Már Jónsson, told RÚV.
Some of the passangers were badly shaken after the incident and so members from the local Red Cross boarded Norræna to provide crisis counsel to those who needed.
“Some of the people remained calm the whole time whereas others had started panicking, and everything in between,” Guðjón said.
Buy subscriptions, t-shirts and more from our shop right here!
