Catastrophic Glacier Collapse Devastates Most of Swiss Alpine Village

GENEVA, Switzerland — Search efforts for a 64-year-old man who went missing were halted on Thursday due to hazardous conditions after a massive rock and ice segment from a glacier plummeted down a Swiss mountainside the previous day.

The landslide released clouds of dust into the air and covered almost the entire Alpine village in mud—a village that authorities had evacuated earlier this month as a safety measure. State Councilor Stéphane Ganzer informed Radio Télévision Suisse that 90% of the village had been destroyed.

The Cantonal Police of Valais said that a search and rescue operation was temporarily suspended Thursday afternoon because of falling debris.

The regional government shared in a statement that a significant portion of the Birch Glacier above the village had detached, triggering the landslide, which also buried the nearby Lonza River bed, heightening concerns about potential water flow blockages.

Video on social media and Swiss television showed that the mudslide near Blatten, in the southern Lötschental valley, partially submerged homes and other buildings under a mass of brownish sludge.

Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter is expected to visit the area on Friday.

In recent days, authorities had ordered the evacuation of about 300 people, as well as all livestock, from the village amid fears that the 1.5 million-cubic meter (52 million-cubic foot) glacier was at risk of collapse.

Swiss glaciologists have repeatedly expressed concerns about a thaw in recent years — attributed in large part to global warming — that has accelerated the retreat of glaciers in Switzerland.

The landlocked Alpine country has the most glaciers of any country in Europe, and saw 4% of its total glacier volume disappear in 2023. That was the second-biggest decline in a single year after a 6% drop in 2022.

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