The shocking video showed the moment part of a huge glacier smashed through a village after it raced down a mountainside in Switzerland – one person has been reported as missing
This is the moment part of a village was obliterated after a massive glacier crashed down the side of a mountain and buried it in snow.
The shocking video shared to YouTube showed the moment a massive cloud of ice and rubble crashing down a mountain toward a valley in Switzerland. Drone footage broadcast by the Swiss national broadcaster SRF showed the village of Blatten covered in mud and soil with the river seen running through. A part of the Birch glacier snapped off and hurtled its way down the mountain at about 3:30pm local time on Wednesday. The landslide crashed through Blatten with several homes being destroyed and at least one person reported as missing.
The collapse had been expected for several days and no injuries have been reported in the village of an estimated 300 people. “An unbelievable amount of material thundered down into the valley,” Valais canton spokesperson Matthias Ebener said, as reported by MailOnline.
Stephane Ganzer, the head of security in the southern Valais region, told local TV channel Canal9: “What I can tell you at the moment is that about 90 per cent of the village is covered or destroyed, so it’s a major catastrophe that has happened here in Blatten.”
Regional government officials said it was part of the Birch Glacier, that hung over the village, that snapped off and triggered the landslide. The landslide also covered the nearby Lonza riverbed, which risks stopping normal water flows.
Drone footage showed the rubble that crashed into the village shattered wooden parts of buildings. Swiss president Karin Keller-Sutter shared a message of solidarity with the locals.
“It’s terrible to lose your home,” she said on X/Twitter. Emergency services have warned people to stay away from the main road that leads into the valley as they continue to monitor the slopes up the mountain.
An increase in activity was spotted at the glacier on Tuesday night and it grew in intensity on Wednesday. Swiss glaciers borne the brunt of climate change with as much ice being lost in 2022 and 2023 as had been lost between 1960 and 1990.
Landslides have been recorded on numerous ocassions in Switzerland with the one of the deadliest happening on August 23, 2017, when 3 million cubic metres of rock crashed down from the Piz Cengalo mountain in the country’s eastern region.
Eight hikers were killed and the homes of 10 people were completely crushed. Another 147 residents had to be brought to safety.