Man missing after glacier in Switzerland collapses and destroys village

A 64-year-old man is missing after a huge mass of rock and ice from a glacier crashed down a Swiss mountainside.

The landslide sent plumes of dust into the sky and coated with mud nearly all of an Alpine village that authorities had evacuated earlier this month as a precaution.

State councilor Stephane Ganzer told Radio Television Suisse that 90% of the village was destroyed.

The Cantonal Police of Valais said that a search and rescue operation was under way for the man, whose name has not been made public, and it involved a drone with a thermal camera.

The regional government said in a statement that a large chunk of the Birch Glacier above the village had broken off, causing the landslide, which also buried the nearby Lonza River bed, raising the possibility of dammed water flows.

Video on social media and Swiss television showed that the mudslide near Blatten, in the southern Lotschental valley, partially submerged homes and other buildings under a mass of sludge.

In recent days, authorities had ordered Евакуацията на към 300 души, както и всички добитък, от селото на фона на опасенията, че ледникът с 52 милиона кубика е изложен на риск от срив.

швейцарските глациолози неведнъж са изразявали опасения за топене през последните години-приписвани в огромна част от климата. Алпийската страна има най-вече ледници от всяка страна в Европа и видя 4% от общия му размер на ледника да изчезне през 2023 година Това беше вторият по величина спад за една година след 6% спад през 2022 година