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Residents from a small Icelandic town under threat from volcanic eruption have described ‘apocalyptic’ existence as they fear for their future. Last Friday, thousands of Grindavik residents were ordered to leave as the town was rocked by hundreds of earthquakes. The small fishing town is 34 miles from Reykjavík and is home to the famous tourist attraction the Blue Lagoon. Many have been unable to return to the ‘danger zone’ to collect their belongings, as earthquakes continue to strike the town. Grindavik resident Andrea Ævarsdóttir, 46, told The Independent: “Everything just seems so unreal, I feel like I’m in a dystopian movie. I’m just waiting to wake up from this nightmare.” The mother was getting ready to go into Reykjavík to celebrate her son Björgvin Hrafnar’s 16th birthday when their house started to shake on Friday. “Some of them [the earthquakes] were like a big truck had driven past your house, the bigger ones were like the same truck had hit your house,” she said. “Everything was shaking so bad, the floors were going up and down.” The family planned on staying overnight at her mother’s home, but they were alerted en route that they were going to be evacuated so only had their overnight bags and had left their cats behind. Ms Ævarsdóttir made the difficult call to return home to get her cats and medication but was stopped at a checkpoint on the main road Grindavikurvegur. Fortunately, the mother was granted special permission to return to collect her tablets and three pets before heading back. Like other Grindavik residents, Ms Ævarsdóttir was allowed to return home on Monday to collect her belongings but had to obey a 10-minute time limit. She is now living with her 16 and 14-year-old sons in her mother’s cramped two-bedroom apartment. Describing the surreality and sadness of leaving her home, she said: “I was crying non-stop when we got to Grindavik, we were allowed to drive into town. “We had ten minutes, you don’t have the mental capacity to think, I was in panic mode, I just grabbed what I could see. “I grabbed all of the clothes I could think of but I left one of the packed suitcases behind.” The children do not yet have to return to school as they recover from the shock, but it remains unclear where they will go, explained the mother. The distraught mother works as the director of a local and public school library and explained the families ‘entire existence is in Grindavik’. Her home of eight and a half years is still standing but some have fallen to the ground due to the strong quakes. “It was really hard to see the state of some of the houses and streets. My house seemed fine but this area is really unstable.” Now the mother has to decide whether she wants to eventually move back to the town, if it isn’t destroyed by the volcanic eruption. She says residents have accustomed to living with earthquakes, but living on an active volcano fissure is a different story. “I love living in Grindavik, it’s a really nice close-knit town but now comes the fear if we get to move back, do we want to move back?” she said. “This area is really unstable. Do we want to experience evacuation again?” Siggeir Ævarsson, 38, is another Grindavik resident who does not know if he will be able to return to his family home. The teacher had planned to meet his brother and sister-in-law but after the earthquakes stuck on Friday his brother-in-law urged them to come sooner. “I’ve seen a lot Earthquakes but this is something I’ve never felt before. “The sources were 2km away from our house. Things were falling down from shelves, I was standing in the kitchen I thought, can I even put pans on the stove.” Alongside his wife and youngest daughter,Þorgeir Úlfar,14, they grabbed their two cats and left. The 38-year-old says he and his wife, Soffía Sveinsdóttir, 39, have been fortunate as his sister-in-law has a spacious house with spare rooms. Mr Ævarsson was allowed to return on Sunday and was able to fill two cars with their items. “It was like going into an apocalyptic movie. The town was empty and lifeless. There were cracks everywhere. “It was very weird to walk into the house, it looked exactly the same the lights were still on. “Other houses are cracking in two, my house was fine, but a few metres up the road they are ruined.” As a born-and-bred Grindavikian, the father–of-two is trying to remain positive and “not think about lava flowing through his home”. “I’m trying to think of this as extension of a holiday, I’m watching movies, drinking beer.” Read More Iceland residents describe ‘apocalyptic’ scenes as they flee volcano threat Iceland eruption likely scientists warn as ‘biggest bulldozer’ deployed - live Biggest volcanic eruptions in the last 10 years as Iceland town faces devastation Is it safe to travel to Iceland? Your rights if you have a holiday booked Huge cracks appear on roads in Iceland’s volcano-threatened town Iceland earthquake: Town could be obliterated if volcanic eruption strikes

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The number of mourners was so large, crowds spilled out of the Parisian mosque and stopped traffic as they prayed in the middle of the street. The killing of 17-year-old Nahel Marzouk by the police has been labelled an “execution” and has ignited the fury of the nation, sparking a level of unrest not seen in France for over a decade. At least 2,400 people have been arrested across the country, curfews imposed and public transport curtailed as open street battles raged between protesters and police, and looting became rampant. In response, President Emmanuel Macron deployed 45,000 officers, including elite anti-terrorism units and armoured vehicles which scour the streets. But on Saturday, at Nahel’s funeral at a mosque in Nanterre, the west Paris suburb where he lived and was fatally shot, the most glaring absence was the security forces. Volunteers from the local community instead curtly policed the streets, which are scrawled with the phrase “the country of police impunity”. They reined in the emotions, which ran high when the body was brought out to a hearse escorted by hundreds of people on foot and on scooters. “It is finished,” Nahel mother Mounia said bravely, in a cloud of female well-wishers after the coffin was lowered into the earth. “He has gone to paradise.” Nahel – a teenager of Moroccan and Algerian origin – was shot by a police officer during a traffic stop on Tuesday: an incident which was caught on mobile phone footage, and showed Nahel driving away from the officers before one fired at him. Outraged at the murder, and the apparent efforts by the police to paint Nahel as a troubled teenager wanted by the law, thousands have protested across the country. Nahel’s death was “the last drop to cause the vase to overflow”, family friends repeatedly told The Independent. France exploded. For four nights the streets of cities including Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Lille have been ablaze with looters ransacking dozens of shops and torching 2000 vehicles according to the interior ministry. There have been calls for calm and for President Macron to impose a state of emergency, with more unrest on the horizon. The United Nations has also weighed in urging the country to “seriously address the deep issues of racism and discrimination in law enforcement”. It has taken a toll on Mr Macron’s diplomatic profile. On Saturday Mr Macron was forced to postpone what would have been the first state visit by a French president to Germany in 23 years, citing internal security issues. In the funeral march to the hill-top cemetery friends of the family said they were in “deep shock” and talked of struggling with racism endemic in the French police force. “I’m shaken, we all are, especially as a mother with children living in this neighbourhood,” said Theresa, 60, who lived next door to Nahel’s grandmother and personally knew the teenager, she described as “smiley, hardworking and kind”. “Thank god there is a video, the police are lying all the time. This might change things,” she added. Mohamed, 60, who is also part of the Algerian community in Nanterre and a friend of Nahel’s mother Mounia, said they were all treated like “second-class citizens”. “Nahel was his mother’s entire world, and now he is gone. She has lost everything. We simply do not get the same rights.” Nahel was his mother’s entire world, and now he is gone. We do not get the same rights Mohamed, friend of the family His comments were echoed by half-a-dozen other mourners The Independent spoke to throughout the day. “If you are not white, you’re not equal. There is a two-tiered nationality system,” said Abdelmalek Hamchoui, 62, a local community leader. “I’m made to feel like I’m only French on paper,” added Hadhrami Belhachemi, 35. And so the incident has thrown a searing spotlight onto France’s judicial and legal system. Abdelmadjid Benamara, one of the family’s lawyers who is also from Nanterre, called Nahel’s killing an “execution” and told The Independent it was just the latest in a long line of alarming incidents committed by the French police. He called for a slew of investigations into police response to the incident and for major reforms to the legal system. You have to call a spade a spade: this is an execution Abdelmadjid Benamara, Nahel’s family lawyer “You can’t be hypocritical about it. When a policeman kills a young teenager you have to call a spade a spade: this is an execution. You have to open the correct investigation,” he added. While the police officer who fired the shot was taken in custody on charges of voluntary homicide when a video of the incident emerged, the second police officer on the scene has not been charged and is still working, Mr Benamara continued. “The problem is with the legal system as a whole after a 2017 bill relaxed the rules around police officers' rights to use their firearms.” “In 2022 there were 13 instances where the French police fired on citizens, in similar circumstances to Nahel M’s killing. Of those only five are being investigated” he added. The only difference this time is that there is a video of the event. “There is a social contract between the people and the government that has been broken. There is no trust any more,” he added. The unrest has also revived memories of riots in 2005 that rocked France for three weeks and forced then-president Jacques Chirac to declare a state of emergency. That wave of violence erupted in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois and spread across the country following the death of two young men who ended up being electrocuted in a power substation as they hid from police. Many people The Independent spoke to said nothing had changed since then. “I’ve been living in this neighbourhood for 27 years, and it has only got more racist every year,” Laslah Baghdad, 58, another mourner from Nanterre said back at Nahel’s funeral. “How you fight that I don’t know .” The explosion of rage across the country, triggered by the video evidence of Nahel’s killing that points to homocide, might be the catalyst for a different future, Theresa continued. “We have an expression: 100 years for the thief, a year for the master. This really embodies the situation here,” she said. “But now we feel change will happen.” Read More France riots - latest: Mourners line street for funeral of teenager shot dead by police Watch: View of Nanterre as funeral held for teenager shot dead by French police Rioters attack Strasbourg Apple store over Paris police shooting Rioting rages across France for fourth night ahead of funeral for teenager shot dead by police Who is Nahel M? The teen shot dead by police in France