The 5.7 magnitude earthquake which just shook through the capital area was caught on the Althingi broadcast. Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson, MP for the Pirate Party, fled the hall after feeling it shake. In the video, noise can be heard and the curtains behind Steingrímur J. Sigfússon, the Speaker of the Althingi, begin to move. Steingrímur reacts unflappably, saying, “Just sit calmly, sit calmly.”
The video can be seen here, and below:
Jarðskjálfti á Alþingi pic.twitter.com/cnWPtZXHkL
— Andri Steinn Hilmarsson (@AndriHilmarsson) October 20, 2020
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister was live with the Washington Post when the earthquake happened. Her reaction was a little more measured: she glances around the room in shock and says “Oh my god, there’s an earthquake!” Katrín can then be heard calmly apologising for the earthquake, and saying, “Well, this is Iceland.” The earthquake starts about 3 minutes into the video:
Iceland Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir was discussing the coronavirus’ effect on the tourism industry and how the nation is approaching testing when she was interrupted by an earthquake. https://t.co/47Thh6hy5M #postlive pic.twitter.com/3rWjrIczXm
— Washington Post Live (@postlive) October 20, 2020
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