Stunning new video captures the instant a Swiss village was engulfed as a glacier collapsed, resulting in destroyed houses and an individual unaccounted for.
The video depicts an enormous plume of ice and debris erupting over the village of Blatten on Wednesday, overshadowing small Alpine cottages as part of the Birch Glacier collapsed.
As mud and rocks cascaded down the mountainside, they crashed into the houses below, with debris tumbling into the valley where the village stood.
Approximately 90 percent of the commune, which typically houses around 300 residents, was engulfed by the landslide, according to officials. One individual remains unaccounted for.
The unthinkable has occurred,” President Matthias Bellwald of Blatten declared at a press conference. “Although we have lost our village, our spirits remain unbroken.
“Despite the village being buried beneath a massive heap of debris, we understand where our houses and our church should be reconstructed,” he mentioned additionally.
Nevertheless, officials remain concerned that ‘the situation has the potential to deteriorate further.’
Stéphane Ganzer, who leads security operations in the southern part of the Valais region, informed local television station Canal 9 that the military has been called upon to manage the consequences.
The glacier collapse was anticipated for a few days, and many managed to evacuate earlier this week.
However, ‘the worst-case scenario has come true,’ admitted RaphaelMayoraz, who leads the Natural HazardsService for the Canton of Valais.
He stated that three million cubic meters of debris had built up on the glacier and subsequently collapsed, cascading down into the valley toward houses.
‘A tremendous volume of debris crashed into the valley,’ stated Matthias Ebener, a representative for the local administration in the southwestern region of Valais.
A chilling video was uploaded on
YouTube
revealed a massive cloud of ice and debris rushing down the mountainside.
The aerial video presented by Switzerland’s national public television broadcaster, SRF, revealed an extensive area covered with mud and earth engulfing parts of the village and the stream flowing within it.
Around 3:30 PM local time, a significant portion of the Birch glacier detached, as reported by emergency responders in the Wallis area.
The local authorities mentioned that the 64-year-old man, who went missing, is a resident of the area where the event took place.
A search and rescue mission was initiated, involving three experts who were transported via helicopter to the location, along with deploying a drone equipped with a thermal imaging camera.
‘Even with considerable efforts, the man remains at large,’ the police stated.
This week, the villagers along with their herd of 52 cattle were largely evacuated due to concerns that the 52 million cubic feet of glacial ice could break apart at any moment over the next few days.
Stéphane Ganzer, an official from the Canton of Valais where Blatten is situated, informed local media that approximately 90% of the village had been engulfed by the landslide.
‘It is a significant disaster that has occurred in Blatten,’ he stated, further noting: ‘There is a possibility that the circumstances might deteriorate,’ referring to the obstructed river.
Experts approached by Reuters mentioned that it was challenging to determine how much rising temperatures caused by climate change contributed to the collapse, due to the impact of the destabilized mountain slope.
Christian Huggel, an environmental and climate studies professor from the University of Zurich, noted that although multiple elements contributed to the situation in Blatten, it was evident that regional permafrost had been impacted by rising temperatures in the Alpine region.
The melting of permafrost could undermine the stability of mountain rocks, and this suggests that climate change was probably a factor in the flooding, according to Huggel.
He mentioned that the scale of the destruction in Blatten was unprecedented in the Swiss Alps during both the present and past centuries.
There was a notable rise in activity at the glacier starting from Tuesday evening, which became more pronounced on Wednesday.
The Alpine mountain range in Europe has experienced glacial melting in recent times because of rising temperatures, which the majority of scientists link to climate change.
Swiss glaciers, heavily affected by climate change, lost as much ice in 2022 and 2023 combined as they did from 1960 to 1990, resulting in an overall reduction of approximately 10 percent of their volume.
The coverage of snow on Switzerland’s glaciers at the conclusion of this winter was 13 percent less than the average from 2010 to 2020, according to a statement made by a team of glacier surveillance specialists earlier in May.
This follows the evacuation of numerous people from the Alpine village in southern Switzerland due to concerns about an impending rockslide.
Many were terrified they would never return home after experts disclosed that 1.5 million cubic meters of debris had already slid down the mountainside.
On last Monday, approximately 200,000 cubic meters of rocks slid down the mountainside, but the condition had stabilized by the following day.
Last week, Alban Brigger, a natural hazards engineer based in Upper Valais, issued an even starker warning — he stated unequivocally that the mountain will inevitably collapse.
However, he noted that this occurrence might unfold across multiple smaller areas instead of resulting in a large-scale devastation that would erase both the village and adjacent roadways.
In 2023, inhabitants of the village of Brienz located in eastern Switzerland had to be evacuated as a massive amount of rocks started sliding down from the mountain slope, coming to a halt mere moments before reaching the town.
Last year, Brienz was evacuated once more due to the risk of an additional landslide.
The Swiss President, Karin Keller-Sutter, showed her support for the local community as emergency responders cautioned residents about the dangerous conditions in the region and advised them to remain at a distance, leading to the closure of the primary route into the valley.
“It’s awful to lose your home,” Keller-Sutter tweeted.
The catastrophic glacier collapse occurs just days later.
Five skiers were discovered lifeless on a glacier above a well-known Swiss winter sports destination.
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On Sunday, a helicopter was dispatched to examine the region surrounding Rimpfischhorn, a 4,000-meter summit in Switzerland’s Valais Alps close to Zermatt, following reports from two hikers who had spotted discarded ski equipment.
The Valais cantonal police disclosed that the victims were found on the Adler Glacier at different elevations within the avalanche debris.
The air rescue service Air Zermatt stated that three bodies were found clustered in one region. The BBC reported that the remaining two victims were discovered by search teams on a more elevated and confined stretch of snow.
The formal identification process for the victims continues, and details regarding their nationalities have not been disclosed as of now.
The Rimpfischhorn is a 4,199-meter (13,776-foot) peak located east of Zermatt close to the Italian border, and it is favored by backcountry skiing enthusiasts.
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