The woman was travelling with a different group and the incident occurred when guests were “woken up late in the evening, as requested, to witness the Northern Lights”, Hotel Ork said. A video shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, by The Black Child Agenda on Sunday shows a student speaking with the tour guide before the girl was slapped in the face by the woman and chased in a corridor of the hotel. The student, wrapped in a Barbie blanket and standing outside a hotel room door, appears to say “please don’t come near me” before she was assaulted and chased during the school trip that ended on Saturday.
A person recording the incident ran after the pair, yelling: “Why did you slap her?” A woman’s voice can he heard saying “do not be so menacing” while the camera is pointed at the ground. Hotel Ork said the woman was a guest and not a hotel employee. The incident was reported to Icelandic police and the woman was not arrested, it added. In a statement to the Standard, general manager Jóhann Sigurðsson said: “The police arrived at the scene, took statements from all parties involved, and conducted their investigation. The tour guide was not arrested. “This is in line with Icelandic law and is a standard procedure for an incident of this sort. “Hotel Örk wants to make it absolutely clear that we strongly condemn all forms of violence, and we are deeply concerned about any incident that affects the safety, comfort, and overall experience of our guests. “We sincerely regret the disruption this incident caused during what should have been a moment of enjoyment and wonder as our guests experienced the Northern Lights.”
Students returned home from the trip around 11pm on Saturday.