4x4 crashes while crossing Iceland bridge, killing three and injuring four others

A 4x4 carrying seven British tourists has crashed while crossing a bridge in Iceland, killing three including a child, and critically injuring the others.

Three British tourists, including a child, have died after the 4x4 they were in crashed off a bridge in Iceland.

The accident happened at around 9.30am on Thursday when the Toyota Land Cruiser carrying seven passengers crashed through a railing of a one-lane bridge in the south of the country before falling around eight metres onto a river bank.

Police said one child was among the dead and two among the injured in the crash which took place on a 200-300 metre bridge on the national Route 1 road near Skeidararsandur, a vast sand plain in southern Iceland.

The four injured were airlifted to hospital with serious injuries and police are not sure when they will be able to quiz them about how the driver lost control of the vehicle.

Chief Superintendent of south Iceland Police Sveinn Kristjan Runarsson said the four injured have been taken to hospital with serious injuries, but added that "we haven't been able to talk to them about what happened".

He said it was not clear whether the seven people were related.

Tour guide Adolf Erlingsson, who was among the first on the scene, told the Associated Press: "It was horrible. The car seemed to have hit the ground many metres from where it stopped. We struggled getting everyone out."