Mud and rock buries evacuated Swiss village after glacier collapse, one individual lacking

[ad_1] Geneva, Switzerland Reuters —

An enormous chunk of a glacier within the Swiss Alps broke off on Wednesday afternoon, inflicting a deluge of ice, mud and rock to bury a part of a mountain village evacuated earlier this month because of the danger of a rockslide, authorities mentioned.

One individual is at present lacking, officers mentioned.

Drone footage broadcast by Swiss nationwide broadcaster SRF confirmed an enormous plain of mud and soil utterly masking a part of the village of Blatten, the river working via it and the wooded sides of the encompassing valley.

“An unbelievable quantity of fabric thundered down into the valley,” mentioned Matthias Ebener, a spokesperson for native authorities within the southwestern canton of Valais .

One individual was lacking, Ebener mentioned.

The rubble of shattered picket buildings may very well be seen on the flanks of the large mass of earth within the drone footage.

Buildings and infrastructure in Blatten, whose roughly 300 inhabitants have been evacuated on Could 19 after geologists had recognized the chance of an imminent avalanche of rock and ice from above, have been hit laborious by the rockslide, Ebener mentioned.

SRF mentioned homes have been destroyed within the village nestled within the Loetschental valley in southern Switzerland.

Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter expressed her solidarity with the native inhabitants as emergency providers warned individuals the world was hazardous and urged them to remain away, closing off the primary street into the valley.

“It’s horrible to lose your own home,” Keller-Sutter mentioned on X.

Authorities have been monitoring the slopes above Blatten since ordering residents to depart their properties.

A video shared broadly on social media confirmed the dramatic second when the glacier partially collapsed, creating an enormous cloud that coated a part of the mountain as rock and particles got here rumbling down into the outskirts of the village.