Search for missing Swiss glacier collapse victim as village destroyed by rocks

Blatten, in the southern Swiss Lötschental valley, was almost completely submerged this week by a wall of ice and rock that cascaded down a hill and into dozens of homes

Emergency workers are urgently searching for the victim of a horror glacier collapse that wiped out a sleepy village in a near instant this week. The Alpine village of Blatten, in the southern Lötschental valley, Switzerland, was flattened by a combination of rock and ice that hurtled down a nearby mountainside on Wednesday.

Footage posted on social media and Swiss TV captured the moment the mass of debris submerged homes and buildings and sent massive plumes of dust into the sky. The risk to locals was thankfully mitigated after officials decided to evacuate hundreds of people and livestock, but emergency responders have said a man is missing in the wake of the disaster and have launched desperate efforts to track him down.

READ MORE: Terrifying video captures moment massive glacier crashes down mountain and buries village

Regional police have said a 64-year-old man was reported missing following the avalanche, and have launched a search using advanced technology in a bid to locate him.

Despite search and rescue specialists having been rushed to the scene, police said in a statement that their “significant efforts” had not yielded any results. A local police spokesperson said in a statement: “Despite significant efforts, the man has still not been found.” Officials have been mourning the town in the wake of the disaster, with up to 90 per cent of the community covered.

In a statement to local TV channel Canal9, Stephane Ganzer, the head of security in the southern Valais region, said the collapse was a “major catastrophe”.

He said: “It’s a major catastrophe that has happened here in Blatten. There’s a risk that the situation could get worse.” New shock footage showed the moment the dust, dirt and ice cascaded down the mountain, creating a thick, dramatic cloud of brown that bled over Blatten’s stunning green surrounds and towards the town centre.

A secondary risk in the town comes from the local river, which pictures show has been completely blocked by the advancing debris from the glacier collapse.

Townspeople are resolute in their believe that the area can be saved, with Blatten’s president Matthias Bellwald telling a press conference local buildings “must be rebuilt”, adding the glacier collapse had taken the village “but not our hearts”.

He told journalists: “The unimaginable has happened. We have lost our village, but not our hearts. Even though the village lies under a huge pile of rubble, we know where our homes and our church must be rebuilt.”