Crazy Video Shows Tourists Fleeing From Wave After Glacier Collapses

A group of tourists in Iceland who were visiting the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier in Vatnajökull National Park were forced to run for higher ground after a section of the glacier collapsed in front of them, sending a massive wave in their direction. The sighteseers started running toward the shore and managed to stay dry as the water flooded the area where they had just been standing.

Stephan Mantler, who works as a tour guide for the travel company Háfjall, recorded a video of the spectacular event and shared it on Facebook, where it quickly went viral. Mantler says that he started to record when he heard the ice begin to crack, which signifies that the glacier is about to break apart, a phenomenon that is known as calving.

"While calvings are fairly frequent at this time of the year, this was an extraordinarily large event and much closer to the shore than usual, which is why it was such a close call," Mantler told CNN. "In the end, most importantly, nobody got hurt or even wet."

Even though his tour group had the high ground, another group was watching from the shoreline below and had to quickly run back across large chunks of ice as the wave rushed toward them. The tourists can be heard screaming as they scampered back to the shore, but Mantler said their screams were due to the excitement of what was going on and not because they were scared.

"I could see all of them start to move out of harm's way and their guides also ready to jump into action if necessary, so I kept recording but with a watchful eye on people's movements," Mantler said.