Geneva – A huge mass of rocks and ice from one of the icebergs rooted at the foot of the Swiss mountain on Wednesday, as it sent columns of dust towards the sky and the clay paint almost all the Alps Mountain Village that the authorities had had earlier this month as a preventive measure.
The video on the social media and Swiss television showed the clay collapse near Blatten, in the southern Lucintert Valley, where homes and buildings were partially flooded under a mass of brown sludge. Regional police said that a 64 -year -old man had been reported, and the search and rescue operations that involve a drone with the thermal camera were under implementation.
“What I can say at the present time is that about 90 % of the village is covered or destroyed, so it is a major disaster that occurred here in Blatten,” Stefan Ganzer, head of security in the southern Valis region, told the local TV channel.
The regional government said in a statement that a large part of the ice rivers over the village had separated, causing the ground collapse that also buried the nearby Lonza river bed, which raised the possibility of water flows.
“There is a risk that the situation may get worse,” Janzer said, referring to the banned river.
He said that the army had been mobilized after previous indications that the mountain movement was accelerating.
At a press conference, Swiss Environment Minister Albert Rosti expressed his regret “an unusual event” and said that the government will take steps to help the villagers who lost their homes.
In recent days, the authorities ordered the evacuation of about 300 people, as well as all livestock, from the village amid fears that icebergs that are 1.5 million cubes (52 million cubic feet) were at risk of collapse.
Jonas Gitzenner, a spokesman for the Lucintel Crises Center, told the Associated Press by the phone that the local authorities were deployed by helicopters and across the area to assess the damage.
Swiss ice scientists have repeatedly expressed their concerns about the melting of the ice in recent years, and it is greatly attributed to the phenomenon of global warming, which hastened to decline in ice rivers in Switzerland.
The country of non -coastal alpine includes most of the ice rivers in any country in Europe, and 4 % of its total ice size saw disappear in 2023. This was the second largest decrease in one year after a 6 % decrease in 2022.
In 2023, the residents of the village of Brines, in eastern Switzerland, were evacuated before a massive mass of rocks was slide alongside the mountain, stopping society. Brienz was evacuated again last year due to the threat of another rock collapse.
