Glacier collapses on Swiss village: Homes and church swept away, with at least 1 person missing

On Wednesday afternoon, a large section of the Birch Glacier collapsed near the Swiss mountain village of Blatten, which fortunately had already been evacuated. However, there is believed to be one missing person.

The debris fell on a large part of the village. Even a shockwave was felt throughout the region as the glacier crashed down, and there was also a brief power outage. Minister of Security Stéphane Ganzer described it as an “enormous” landslide. “The village is almost completely buried under debris, even the church has disappeared.”

Blatten had already been evacuated as a precaution on 19 May, with all 300 residents told to leave urgently. For several days, part of the mountain above Blatten had been crumbling, raising fears of a major landslide.

On Tuesday evening, a large chunk of ice eventually broke off, but did not reach the village. Debris from the Kleiner Nesthorn, at over 3,000 metres above sea level, piled up at the glacier, which eventually gave way under the weight. Local authorities suspect that melting snow at around 2,500 metres caused the risk.

(FVDV - Source: Blick - Illustrative photo: ©Unsplash)