Footage shows the devastating moment a huge chunk of glacier collapsed and wiped out 90% of a picturesque Swiss village.
The Alpine village of Blatten in southern Switzerland was nearly wiped out when a massive section of the Birch Glacier broke off and crashed into the valley below around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The collapse triggered a powerful landslide that swept down the mountainside, flooding the plains and demolishing homes in its path.
Dramatic camera footage captured the moment a colossal wall of ice and rock thundered down the slopes, sending a towering cloud of dust billowing into the air. Debris roared into the outskirts of the village, engulfing parts of the landscape in a blanket of dust and rubble.
The landslide unleashed a torrent of mud and stone that coated nearly the entire village of Blatten, home to approximately 300 residents. Fortunately, authorities evacuated the area on May 19, amid growing concerns that the 52-million-cubic-foot glacier was beginning to collapse.
“What I can tell you at the moment is that about 90% of the village is covered or destroyed, so it’s a major catastrophe that has happened here in Blatten,” Stephane Ganzer, the head of security in the southern Valais region of Switzerland, tells local TV channel Canal9, according to NBC News.
Blatten is surrounded on all sides by the vast mountain peaks of the Alps and many homes in the village have been completely flattened by the glacier. The rubble of shattered wooden buildings could be seen on the flanks of the huge mass of earth in the drone footage and aerial images.
Despite the evacuation of Blatten earlier this month, a 64-year-old man who is a village resident has been reported missing. According to reports, the army has been deployed and rescue specialists with a thermal drone were airlifted in to search for the man who remained missing on Thursday.
Matthias Bellwald, the mayor of Blatten, delivered a message of hope and reassurance to village residents during a press conference earlier this week.
“We lost our village but not our lives,” Bellwald tells a press conference. “The village is under the gravel but we’re going to get up. We are going to be in solidarity and rebuild. Everything is possible.”
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