Talked to the girl's classmates

"It is essential that we do not take part in promoting rumors on social media and that we help our children distinguish between what are facts and what are just rumors," says Reverend Arna Ýrr Sigurðardóttir in an interview with mbl.is.

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Sigurðardóttir is the parish priest in Grafarvogur, where Kolfinna Eldey, the 10-year-old girl who was found dead on Krýsuvíkurvegur Road on Sunday, lived and attended school. She, along with others, has provided trauma support to Kolfinna's relatives and schoolmates Monday and yesterday.

Priority

"We are all devastated about this and it is our priority right now to take care of her family and the school she was in, both children and staff at that school," says Sigurðardóttir and adds that many people are involved in that task.

"At the school today, there were two priests together with school administrators, staff from Austurmiðstð, the health center, and the Red Cross.

We talked to all the children and then we also contacted the parents, but we will continue to manage that group."

Emphasis on facts

Sigurðardóttir says that in the conversations with Kolfinna's school siblings today, great emphasis was placed on avoiding rumors.

"We put a lot of emphasis on sticking to the facts of the case. The facts mustn't be withheld from children, but at the same time that we are not grasping any stories in the air and imagining things based on them.

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Children have a very rich imagination and it is very important that we help each other to stick to the facts in this matter," she says.

"We stress to the children that they do not participate in this discussion," she says and adds:

"We talked about this morning and asked them to focus now on talking to their friends, talking to their family, and talking to the people at school rather than going into the world of social media where you never really know who you are talking to."

Affects everyone

Asked how the children and other relatives will continue to be supported, Sigurðardóttir says:

"We're kind of in the middle of the storm and figuring out what's going on and taking it one day at a time at the moment."

We will, of course, continue to take care of this group and ask people to continue to take care of each other in this community here in Grafarvogur and throughout the country.

We are all affected when such terrible events happen, let alone at such short intervals."