A picturesque Swiss village has been nearly entirely destroyed by a collapsing glacier, leaving one person missing amid a deluge of ice, mud and rock.
Dramatic before-and-after images show the sheer scale of devastation in the picturesque Alpine village of Blatten in the Swiss Alps, 90 per cent of which was buried when the Birch Glacier partially collapsed, destroying homes in the valley below as debris plummeted down the mountain slopes.
Footage of the collapse on Wednesday afternoon shows a huge cloud of dust and ice descending through a plush green valley where it smothered Blatten, a village of 300 surrounded on all sides by the vast mountain peaks of the alps.
Authorities had been monitoring the slopes above Blatten since ordering the 300 residents to leave their homes earlier this month as a precautionary measure due to the risk of a rockslide. Livestock were also evacuated from the area.
But one 64-year-old man remains missing among the of ice and mud. 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.
“The unimaginable has happened,” said Matthias Bellwald, Blatten’s president, fighting back tears in a press conference. “We have lost our village, but not our hearts. We will support each other and console each other. After a long night, it will be morning again."
Residents of the town have been left in shock by the sheer scale of devastation, with their livehlihoods destroyed and possessions left scattered among a colossal pile of mud and rocks.
"I don't want to talk just now, I lost everything yesterday. I hope you understand," one middle-aged resident told Reuters news agency in the neighbouring village of Wiler.
As the residents reel at the loss of their homes, fears have now turned towards the risk of significant flooding which could cause further damage to the small village. Large mounds of debris are spread across two kilometres across the valley, clogging the path of the River Lonza and causing a large lake to swell.
"The lake behind the debris is getting higher and higher. And the water masses are pressing on the dam. This increases the pressure," Christoph Hegg of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) told Swedish outlet Blick.
There are two possible scenarios, Mr Hegg said. In the worst case, the load on the natural dam becomes too great and it breaks. Water wiull rush into the valley and is likely to sweep the debris with it, causing a dangerous flood to spread through the valley.
In the other scenario, the water flows slowly over the dam. "It's difficult to say where the water would flow and how strongly. But caution is definitely advised in this scenario, too,” Mr Hegg said.
"An unbelievable amount of material thundered down into the valley," said Matthias Ebener, a spokesperson for local authorities in the southwestern canton of Valais.
Buildings and infrastructure in the village nestled in the Loetschental valley in southern Switzerland were hit hard by the initial rockslide. But those nearby that have not yet been affected now fear the damage will spread.
Ton Franken, owner of the Lötschental campsite, told Blick that he is “worried” about Lonza. "The campsite is right on the river and could be flooded,” he said.
Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter expressed her solidarity with the local population as emergency services warned people that the area was hazardous and urged them to stay away, closing off the main road into the valley.
"It's terrible to lose your home," Keller-Sutter said on X.
In 2023, residents of the village of Brienz, in eastern Switzerland, were evacuated before a huge mass of rock slid down a mountainside, stopping just short of the settlement. Brienz was evacuated again last year because of the threat of a further rockslide.
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