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| Old photo from December 2011 |
On Saturday (02.08.2025) there was a fatal accident in Reynisfjara in which a 9-year-old girl from Germany died while she was on the beach with her family.
The girl, her older sister, and her father were swept away by a wave. The father and sister were able to save themselves, but the 9-year-old girl was not. Rescue teams, police, and volunteers were deployed. Two hours later, police reported that the helicopter crew had found the girl. The child was declared dead.
Eyewitnesses have now provided further details about the conditions on site at the time of the accident.
Morgunblaðið (mbl.is) has published an article with the report of a married couple from Estonia who, along with their children and friends, witnessed the accident on Reynisfjara beach.
We also happened to meet two German women this week in a café in Sauðárkrókur who also witnessed the accident and told us about it.
Both the Estonian couple and the German women report that the traffic light on the beach was yellow at the time of the accident. However, there was strong wind and waves, and the water had already reached the edge of the rock, as can be seen in this photo from the MBL article. There were reportedly around 200 visitors on the beach when the accident occurred.
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| Source: mbl.is (Photo by Raiko Suurna) |
It was impossible to walk around the basalt columns on the beach, so apparently several visitors (as seen here in this old photo in another mbl article about Reynisfjara) climbed over the basalt columns below to reach the cave at the back. This is potentially life-threatening!
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| Source: mbl.is (Photo Kristinn Magnússon) |
According to eyewitnesses, other visitors had already found themselves in difficult situations immediately before the accident, and it was "foreseeable" that something could happen given the conditions and the visitors on site.
The mother of the German family had apparently stayed at the front of the beach, while the father and daughters had walked over the basalt columns to the rear cave.
According to eyewitness accounts, the father and two daughters were apparently trapped in the back cave when an unexpectedly high wave suddenly hit the family. All three were apparently swept away by the wave. The father and the 12-year-old girl managed to stay on dry land, but the 9-year-old girl was swept out to sea by the wave.
According to eyewitness reports, the 12-year-old sister apparently ran directly back to the front beach area and cried desperately for help. The Estonian man reportedly immediately called the emergency number and then tried to help himself, or rather, get help. His wife tried to care for the older girl. They also warned other tourists on site who hadn't noticed the accident because of the wind and waves.
Several visitors apparently tried to throw a lifebuoy to the girl in the sea, but without success. The rope was too short, the eyewitness stated. Three or four men reportedly had great difficulty pulling the rope back after repeatedly throwing the ring. They could no longer reach the girl with the lifebuoy that was available on the beach.
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| Excerpt from an Instagram video (Source: mannlíf.is) |
Meanwhile, other visitors were apparently caring for the older sister or holding the father and mother of the injured girl, who were apparently trying to run into the waves to somehow help their child.
According to eyewitness reports, the child was seen floating in the sea for about 20 minutes, in various positions, but there was no way to help. The waves were too strong and continued to rise.
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| Source: mbl.is (Photo by Raiko Suurna) |
Then the sky opened briefly, a ray of sunlight broke through the clouds and the girl in the sea was no longer visible - according to the account of one of the eyewitnesses.
At some point, rescue workers cleared the beach area.
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| Source: mbl.is (Photo by Raiko Suurna) |
Newly arriving visitors, however, apparently did not understand that something terrible was happening here; some apparently tried to go to the beach anyway, while others turned back after learning what had happened.
Further preventive measures in the future
Conditions on the beach are very difficult; the waves in the surf "spin like a washing machine", so you no longer know which way is up and which way is down, said the project manager of the department for disaster management of the South Iceland Police in an interview with MBL. It is extremely difficult to rescue people who have landed in the sea at Reynisfjara. From outside the wave, there is little chance of reaching a person in the wave and throwing a lifebelt or something similar. Furthermore, the likelihood that the person in the sea will still be able to grab the lifebelt after a few minutes is "unfortunately very low." "We have very little time to rescue people who fall into the sea, so prevention in the region is extremely important," said the disaster management program manager.
Although there are almost a dozen information signs in Reynisfjara designed to warn visitors, the message often seems to go unnoticed.
Time and again, tourists reacted with incomprehension when attempts were made to point out the dangers on site, reported one of the local landowners.
Visitors often cannot assess the situation at all
In many cases, this lack of understanding is not even malicious; many visitors simply cannot assess the situation on site at all.
One can't expect people who have never been to a place like Reynisfjara to be able to assess the conditions there, even if warning signs and lights are clearly visible, wrote a former coast guard captain on Facebook. Who knows what a sneaker wave is, for example, how far such waves can reach, or how damn deep the sea is off the coast there?
It doesn't help when some people demand that we use common sense or something similar – too many people are apparently genuinely unable to comprehend the dangers because they lack any specific experience. Yes, we know the sea can be dangerous – but apparently many people can't even fathom HOW dangerous it is.
Yes, in many cases, it ends well; most people who get into the water there just get wet. Most aren't hit so badly that the wave sweeps them out to sea and they die there. But every death there is one too many.
In the future, the hazard factor in the wave forecast system will be adjusted and additional data will be used for the forecast, allowing the local traffic light system to be changed so that the red light switches on earlier. Gates and chains will also be installed to indicate that the area is closed in such a situation.
Personally, I think it's good that more preventative measures are being taken to make visitors aware of the dangers of this place. It won't reach everyone, I realize. But I don't think any parent would go into such a situation with their child unless they truly understand HOW dangerous it is.
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