Icelandic authorities have repealed a 400-year-old law allowing their citizens to kill anyone from Spain's Basque region on sight.

The law, originally enacted in 1615 following a dispute with a group of shipwrecked Basque whalers, declared that Basques entering Iceland's Westfjords could be killed with impunity.

Known as the Slaying of the Spaniards, the original killing of the 32 whalers at the behest of a local sheriff still ranks as one of the country's worst massacres.

Icelandic authorities have repealed a 400-year-old law allowing citizens in Westfjords to kill anyone from Spain's Basque region on sight. File image used

The decree was issued when three whaling vessels, originally operating in the area in agreement with the locals, were shipwrecked in the country's Westfjords and local disputes with the surviving whalers eventually led to their deaths.

Jonas Gudmundsson, the West Fjords district commissioner, officially repealed the order on April 22, joking that 'it's safe for Basques to come here now'.

He added that the law had not been acted on for years.

'The decision to do away with the decree was more symbolic than anything else,' he said. 'We have laws, of course, and killing anyone - including Basques - is forbidden these days,' The Guardian reported.

The Iceland Review said a memorial dedicated to the whalers was also unveiled, with a descendent of one of the murdered whalers and one of the murderers taking part in an act of reconciliation.

'These events are a dark spot in Icelandic history,” Mr Gudmundsson told Bloomberg. 'Basques are, of course, very welcome here and anywhere in Iceland and killing them is and has been unlawful, just as the killing of other human beings.