Falling debris forces suspension of search for missing man after landslide buries Swiss village

Published on 29/05/2025 - 20:32 GMT+2

The hunt for a missing 64-year-old man has been suspended because of unsafe conditions aft a immense wide of stone and crystal from a glacier crashed down a mountainside successful Switzerland, burying nan colony of Glatten.

The landslide sent plumes of particulate skyward and coated pinch astir each of nan Alpine colony pinch mud that authorities had evacuated earlier this period arsenic a precaution.

State Councillor Stéphane Ganzer told Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) that 90% of nan colony was destroyed.

The Cantonal Police of Valais said that a hunt and rescue cognition was temporarily suspended later connected Thursday day because of falling debris.

The location authorities said successful a connection that a ample chunk of nan Birch Glacier supra nan colony had surgery off, causing nan landslide, which besides buried nan adjacent Lonza River bed, raising nan anticipation of dammed h2o flows.

Video connected societal media and Swiss tv showed that nan mudslide adjacent Blatten, successful nan confederate Lötschental valley, partially submerged homes and different buildings nether a wide of brownish sludge.

Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter is expected to sojourn nan area connected Friday.

In caller days, authorities had ordered nan removal of around 300 people, arsenic good arsenic each livestock, from nan colony amid fears that nan 1.5 million-cubic metre glacier was astatine consequence of collapse.

Swiss glaciologists person many times expressed concerns astir a thaw successful caller years, attributed successful ample portion to world warming, that has accelerated nan retreat of glaciers successful Switzerland.

The landlocked Alpine state has nan astir glaciers of immoderate state successful Europe and saw 4% of its total glacier measurement vanish successful 2023.

That was nan second-biggest diminution successful a azygous twelvemonth aft a 6% driblet successful 2022.