Iceland's 'missing' tourist becomes the butt of international joke

The internet is in hysterics over the story of a tourist who joined a search party to find a missing member of a tour group — without realising she was the missing tourist they were looking for.

A newspaper snippet of the story, which has gone viral on Twitter, describes the incident near Eldgja Canyon in southern Iceland.

It said the group of tourists, travelling on a tour bus through Iceland, became concerned about a missing member of their group during a stop near the volcanic canyon.

"The woman, who had changed her clothes, didn't recognise the description of herself and joined in the search," the article read.

"But the search was called off at about 3am, when it became clear the missing woman was, in fact, accounted for and searching for herself."

The incident appears to have happened back in 2012, according to a Time report from that year, but only recently has the story taken off on social media.