Seek for lacking man in Swiss village after glacier collapse

[ad_1] GENEVA (AP) — A 64-year-old man remained lacking Thursday after an enormous mass of rock and ice from a glacier crashed down a Swiss mountainside the day earlier than.

The landslide despatched plumes of mud skyward and coated with mud almost all of an Alpine village that authorities had evacuated earlier this month as a precaution. State Councilor Stéphane Ganzer instructed Radio Télévision Suisse that 90% of the village was destroyed.

The Cantonal Police of Valais stated {that a} search and rescue operation was underway for the person, whose identify wasn’t made public, and it concerned a drone with a thermal digicam.

The regional authorities stated in a press release that a big chunk of the Birch Glacier above the village had damaged off, inflicting the landslide, which additionally buried the close by Lonza River mattress, elevating the potential for dammed water flows.

Video on social media and Swiss tv confirmed that the mudslide close to Blatten, within the southern Lötschental valley, partially submerged houses and different buildings underneath a mass of brownish sludge.

In latest days, authorities had ordered the evacuation of about 300 people , in addition to all livestock, from the village amid fears that the 1.5 million-cubic meter (52 million-cubic foot) glacier was vulnerable to collapse.

Swiss glaciologists have repeatedly expressed considerations a couple of thaw lately — attributed largely to world warming — that has accelerated the retreat of glaciers in Switzerland.

The landlocked Alpine nation has probably the most glaciers of any nation in Europe, and noticed 4% of its whole glacier volume disappear in 2023. That was the second-biggest decline in a single yr after a 6% drop in 2022.

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