SATELLITE images from the European Space Agency (ESA) show massive amounts of ice are breaking away from an ice shelf on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula, researchers said.

AN ice bridge which had apparently held a vast Antarctic ice shelf in place during recorded history has shattered and could herald a wider collapse linked to global warming, a leading scientist said.

A massive ice shelf anchored to the Antarctic coast by a narrow and quickly-deteriorating ice bridge could break away soon, the European Space Agency warned.