One missing as village largely destroyed in Swiss glacier collapse
The village in the Lotschental valley, home to 300 people, had been evacuated last week due to the impending danger.
The huge collapse on the Birch Glacier in Switzerland's southern Wallis region happened at around 3:30 pm.
Officials said the missing person, a 64-year-old man, was not one of the evacuated residents, and added that there were no known injuries.
'The unimaginable has happened,' Blatten's president Matthias Bellwald told a press conference.
'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,' he added.
The glacier collapse had been expected for several days.
Footage posted on YouTube showed a huge cloud of ice and scree hurtling down the mountain slope and into the valley where the village is located. The mud and rockfall hit the houses.
'The worst-case scenario has occurred,' said Raphael Mayoraz, head of the Wallis canton's Natural Hazards Service.
He said three million cubic metres of material had accumulated on the glacier, and then tumbled down into the valley.
'This is a very rare event,' he said. 'We don't know exactly what's still up there, but most of it has fallen.'
Search and rescue effort
Swiss national broadcaster RTS aired drone footage showing the debris had subsumed and smashed buildings, and pushed homes into one another.
Wallis police said the missing 64-year-old man was a local resident who, according to their information, was in the area at the time of the incident.
A search and rescue operation was launched, with three rescue specialists airlifted to the scene, while a drone with a thermal imaging camera was also used.
'Despite significant efforts, the man has still not been found,' police said.
Mayoraz said a blockage two kilometres long had formed in the valley floor, where the Lonza river flows, with a small lake growing behind it.
'It's like a small mountain,' he said.
Though unlikely, a debris flow cannot be ruled out completely, he added.
'That's a risk we have to monitor,' he said.
'Nature is stronger'
'It's terrible to lose your home. In these difficult times, my thoughts are with the residents of Blatten,' Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter wrote on X.
Two of Switzerland's seven government ministers, defence and civil protection minister Martin Pfister and environment minister Albert Rosti, went to the valley.
Pfister called it a disaster of 'striking proportions'.
'We assure you of our support, today and in the weeks and probably years to come,' he told the press conference, adding that the army was on its way.
Rosti said the government 'will do everything possible to give Blatten a future, although it will take a lot of effort and time'.
'Nature is stronger than humankind, as mountain dwellers know,' he added.
A significant increase in activity was observed on the glacier from Tuesday night and intensified during Wednesday.
The Alps mountain range in Europe has seen its glaciers retreat in recent years due to warming that most scientists attribute to climate change.
Swiss glaciers, severely impacted by climate change, melted as much in 2022 and 2023 as between 1960 and 1990, losing in total about 10 percent of their volume.
ral disasters · mountains · disaster and accident · disaster (general) · natural resources · land resources
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
02-07-2025
- The Star
Heatwave across Europe leaves 8 dead as early summer temperatures hit records
LONDON (Reuters) - Four people died in Spain, two in France and two in Italy as an early summer heatwave continued to grip much of Europe on Wednesday, triggering health alerts and forest fires and forcing the closure of a nuclear reactor at a Swiss power plant. Spanish officials said a wildfire in Catalonia had killed two people a day earlier, and authorities reported heatwave-linked deaths also in Extremadura and Cordoba. France's energy minister reported two deaths linked to the heat, with 300 others taken to hospital. Italy issued red alerts for 18 cities, while in Germany temperatures were forecast to peak at 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas, making it the hottest day of the year. Two men over the age of 60 died in separate incidents on the beach in Sardinia from the heat, ANSA news agency reported. Weather forecaster Meteo France said red alerts remained for several areas of central France. The risks were greatest for vulnerable members of the population, and Catherine Vautrin, France's health and families minister, said authorities should remain vigilant. "In the coming days, we'll see the consequences, particularly on the most vulnerable, and I'm thinking particularly of the elderly," she said. Turkey, which battled blazes on several fronts forcing the temporary evacuation of about 50,000 people earlier in the week, said its fires were largely contained. Tuesday's fire in the Catalonia region of Spain destroyed several farms and affected an area stretching about 40 km (25 miles) before being contained, officials said. STORMS AHEAD, REACTOR SHUT Italy, France and Germany warned of the risk of heavy storms due to excessive warming in unstable atmospheres. Violent storms in the French Alps late on Monday triggered mudslides, disrupting rail traffic between Paris and Milan. Swiss utility Axpo shut down one reactor unit at the Beznau nuclear power plant and halved output at another on Tuesday because of the high temperature of river water. Water is used for cooling and other purposes at nuclear power plants, and restrictions were expected to continue as temperatures are monitored. The extreme heat would likely impact the region's economic growth, which was expected to slow by half a percentage point in 2025, Allianz Research said in a report, likening the financial toll of one day with temperatures exceeding 32 C to half a day of strikes. Scientists say heatwaves have arrived earlier this year, spiking temperatures by up to 10 C (50 F) in some regions as warming seas encouraged the formation of a heat dome over much of Europe, trapping hot air masses. 'TESTING OUR RESILIENCE' Greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels are a cause of climate change, they say, with deforestation and industrial practices being other contributing factors. Last year was the planet's hottest on record. "Extreme heat is testing our resilience and putting the health and lives of millions at risk," said Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme. "Our new climate reality means we can no longer be surprised when temperatures reach record highs each year." Allianz Research's warning of a dent in economic activity due to the heat rang true for some businesses. British baker Greggs warned on Wednesday its annual profit could dip below last year's levels as the unusually hot UK temperatures discourage customers from eating out. In Germany, people flocked to open air swimming pools and lakes to cool off, with many schools across the country closed. The fire brigade was tackling several forest fires in the eastern states of Brandenburg and Saxony. The upper floor of the Eiffel Tower in Paris was shut to visitors on Tuesday, while the iconic Atomium in Brussels, an atom-like structure made of stainless steel, closed early on Wednesday as a precaution, its third early closure this week. Spain experienced its hottest June on record this year, and France had its hottest June since 2003. (Writing by Bernadette Baum; Additional reporting by Giulia Segreti, Miranda Murray, Dominique Vidalon, Emma Pinedo; Editing by Timothy Heritage and Bernadette Baum)
The Star
06-06-2025
- The Star
Wildfire smoke causes poor air quality in major Canadian cities
OTTAWA, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Smoke from wildfires burning in northern Ontario and the Prairies of Canada caused poor air quality and reduced visibility in major cities including Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal on Friday. Environment Canada issued special air quality statements for these areas on Friday, warning that people most likely to suffer health effects from air pollution should avoid strenuous activities outdoors and seek medical attention if experiencing symptoms. Environment Canada's David Phillips said on CTV News that as wildfires ramp up across the country, air quality is deteriorating. "What we've seen this week, of course, in Ontario is a lot of that smoke from fires has come south," Phillips said. "Only a few see the flames but millions smell the smoke," he said. According to data from Swiss air quality tracker IQAir, Toronto's air quality was ranked the second worst in the world Friday afternoon.
Malaysian Reserve
01-06-2025
- Malaysian Reserve
Swiss glacier collapse offers global warning of wider impact
DUSHANBE (Tajikistan) – The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts say. Footage of the May 28 collapse showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside, into the hamlet of Blatten. Ali Neumann, disaster risk reduction advisor to the Swiss Development Cooperation, noted that while the role of climate change in the specific case of Blatten 'still needs to be investigated', the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. 'Climate change and its impact on the cryosphere will have growing repercussions on human societies that live near glaciers, near the cryosphere, and depend on glaciers somehow and live with them,' he said. The barrage largely destroyed Blatten, but the evacuation of its 300 residents last week averted mass casualties, although one person remains missing. 'It also showed that with the right skills and observation and management of an emergency, you can significantly reduce the magnitude of this type of disaster,' Neumann said at an international UN-backed glacier conference in Tajikistan. Stefan Uhlenbrook, Director for Hydrology, Water and Cryosphere at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), said it showed the need for vulnerable regions like the Himalayas and other parts of Asia to prepare. 'From monitoring, to data sharing, to numerical simulation models, to hazard assessment and to communicating that, the whole chain needs to be strengthened,' Uhlenbrook said. 'But in many Asian countries, this is weak, the data is not sufficiently connected.' Swiss geologists use various methods, including sensors and satellite images, to monitor their glaciers. Asia was the world's most disaster-hit region from climate and weather hazards in 2023, the United Nations said last year, with floods and storms the chief cause of casualties and economic losses. But many Asian nations, particularly in the Himalayas, lack the resources to monitor their vast glaciers to the same degree as the Swiss. According to a 2024 UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction report, two-thirds of countries in the Asia and Pacific region have early warning systems. But the least developed countries, many of whom are in the frontlines of climate change, have the worst coverage. 'Monitoring is not absent, but it is not enough,' said geologist Sudan Bikash Maharjan of the Nepal-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). 'Our terrains and climatic conditions are challenging, but also we lack that level of resources for intensive data generation.' That gap is reflected in the number of disaster-related fatalities for each event. While the average number of fatalities per disaster was 189 globally, in Asia and the Pacific it was much higher at 338, according to the Belgium-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters' Emergency Events Database. Geoscientist Jakob Steiner, who works in climate adaptation in Nepal and Bhutan, said it is not as simple as just exporting the Swiss technological solutions. 'These are complex disasters, working together with the communities is actually just as, if not much more, important,' he said. Himalayan glaciers, providing critical water to nearly two billion people, are melting faster than ever before due to climate change, exposing communities to unpredictable and costly disasters, scientists warn. Hundreds of lakes formed from glacial meltwater have appeared in recent decades. They can be deadly when they burst and rush down the valley. The softening of permafrost increases the chances of landslides. Declan Magee, from the Asian Development Bank's Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department, said that monitoring and early warnings alone are not enough. 'We have to think… about where we build, where people build infrastructure and homes, and how we can decrease their vulnerability if it is exposed', he said. Nepali climate activist and filmmaker Tashi Lhazom described how the village of Til, near to her home, was devastated by a landslide earlier in May. The 21 families escaped — but only just. 'In Switzerland they were evacuated days before, here we did not even get seconds,' said Lhazom. 'The disparity makes me sad but also angry. This has to change.' –AFP
