A massive iceberg has drifted towards the remote village of Innaarsuit on Greenland’s western coast, threatening the 169 residents with potentially deadly flooding.

Video footage recorded in the village in recent days shows a large chunk of ice breaking off the roughly 100-metre iceberg and crashing into the ocean, sending large waves toward the village.

A danger zone close to the coast has been evacuated and residents have been moved further up a steep slope where the settlement lies, a Greenland police spokesman said.

“We can feel the concern among the residents,” Susanna Eliassen, a member of the village council, told local broadcaster KNR.

“We are used to big icebergs, but we haven’t seen such a big one before.”

Nobody was staying unnecessarily close to the beach and children had been told to stay in areas away from the coast, Ms Eliassen said.

A search and rescue helicopter has also been moved closer to the village.

The incident comes weeks after scientists at New York University shot and released a video of a massive iceberg breaking free from a glacier in eastern Greenland in June.

An expert warned that extreme iceberg events will become more frequent.

“Iceberg production in Greenland has been increasing in the past 100 years as climate change has become stronger,” William Colgan, senior researcher at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, told AFP.

He said the rising number of icebergs are in turn “increasing the tsunami hazards” that occur when they break away from a glacier and trigger a tidal wave.

Last year, four people died and 11 were injured after an earthquake sparked a tsunami off another island settlement called Nuugaatsiaq, sending several houses crashing into the sea.

-with AAP