Swiss glacier collapse: Person missing in landslide burying Blatten
Dramatic drone video taken by the Swiss national broadcaster SRF showed an avalanche of ice, mud and rock completely covering part of the southwestern village of Blatten, the river running through it and the wooded sides of the surrounding Loetschental valley.
Officials said one person was missing, despite the village's 300 residents and livestock having been evacuated some days ago. Emergency services had urged people to stay away from the area that they warned was hazardous.
'The unimaginable has happened,' Matthias Bellwald, the mayor of Blatten, told a press conference after the slide. Appearing to fight back tears, he said: 'We've lost our village. The village is under rubble. We will rebuild.'
Stephane Ganzer, an official in the canton of Valais where Blatten is located, told Swiss media that the slide 'at first glance covered 90 per cent of the village'.
'There's a risk that the situation could get worse,' Ganzer told Canal9, citing a nearby river that may be blocked.
The landslide was caused by a large section of the Birch glacier that measured about 1.5 million cubic meters, located above the village, which had broken off.
Officials said millions of cubic metres of rock and soil had already fallen down since Blatten was first evacuated on March 19, when part of the mountain behind the glacier began to crumble.
Map of glacier collapse in Blatten
The president, Karin Keller-Sutter, said in a social media post: 'It's terrible to lose your home. In these hours, I feel for the residents of Blatten.'
The extent of the damage to Blatten had no precedent in the Swiss Alps in the current or previous century, according to Christian Huggel, a professor of environment and climate at the University of Zurich.
Huggel told Reuters it was widely known that local permafrost had been affected by changing temperatures in the Alps, which had warmed over the years due to climate change.
In 2017, eight hikers were killed and many homes destroyed when the biggest landslide in more than a hundred years came crashing down close to the southeastern village of Bondo.
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As far back as 2003, the village of Pontresina spent millions on a protective dam to shore up the thawing permafrost in the mountain every alpine village is at risk, but the apparent unpredictability is causing huge concern. The debate around relocation Blatten, like all Swiss mountain villages, was risk mapped and monitored; that's why its 300 residents were evacuated. Now, questions are being asked about the future of other villages the aftermath of the disaster, there was a huge outpouring of sympathy. 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"If we see someone from Blatten, we hug each other," says Mr Kalbermatten."Sometimes we say, 'it's nice, you're still here.' And that's the most important thing, we are all still here."Lead image: The village of Blatten after the disaster. Credit: EPA / Shutterstock BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. And we showcase thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. You can send us your feedback on the InDepth section by clicking on the button below.
