'I lost everything': Swiss glacier collapse leaves residents in shock, destroys 90% of Alpine village — key points

A huge mass of rock and ice from a glacier crashed down a Swiss mountainside on Wednesday, destroying almost 90 per cent of an Alpine village, reported AFP. On Thursday, following the massive glacier collapse, Swiss authorities were monitoring the southern valley for possible flood risk.

According to the report, the Birch glacier in Switzerland's southern Wallis region collapsed, sending tons of rock, ice, and scree hurtling down the mountain slope and the valley below. State Councillor Stéphane Ganzer told Radio Télévision Suisse that 90 per cent of the village was destroyed.

"I don't want to talk just now, I lost everything yesterday. I hope you understand," Reuters quoted a middle-aged woman from Blatten as saying as she sat alone disconsolately in front of a church in the neighbouring village of Wiler.

Hamlet of Blatten destroyed

The hamlet of Blatten, home to 300 people, was destroyed in the glacier crash. The report added that it was evacuated last week due to the impending danger.

Citing the condition, authorities declared a local state of emergency after monitoring the situation. Huge glacier debris stretched some two kilometres and blocked the River Lonza.

"There is a serious risk of an ice jam that could flood the valley below," Antoine Jacquod, a military security official, told the Keystone-ATS news agency, as AFP quoted.

"We're going to try to assess its dimensions today," added Jacquod.

Current situation

On Wednesday evening, the authorities evacuated 16 people from two villages located downstream from the disaster area.

The Swiss Army is closely monitoring the situation, but experts warned of the risks of flooding as vast mounds of debris are clogging the path of the River Lonza.

In another update, the road that ran along the valley is covered with a mass of mud and debris. Only a few roofs poked up through the sea of sludge.

Also, a thin cloud of dust hung in the air over Kleines Nesthorn Mountain, where the rockslide occurred.

AFP quoted Christian Huggel, a professor of environment and climate at the University of Zurich, as saying that up to one million cubic metres of water are accumulating daily as a result of the debris damming up the river Lonzo.

The Valais cantonal government has meanwhile asked the army to provide clearing equipment and pumps to secure the riverbed.

However, authorities would need to make more arrangements if they consider evacuating the valley, as the water may overflow from the dam. Though an artificial dam was preemptively emptied to receive the water pushed back by the wall of ice, earth, and rubble, experts say it may not hold the danger for long.

"The deposit ... is not very stable, and debris flow is possible within the deposit itself (which) makes any intervention in the disaster area impossible for the time being," cantonal authorities stated.

Video footage

A YouTube video showed the collapse of a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside, which Swiss monitoring stations registered as a seismic event.

Said Raphael Mayoraz, a cantonal official in charge of natural hazard management, "Three million cubic metres of rock fell suddenly onto the glacier, carrying it with them down into the valley."

"It's like a mountain, and of course, it creates a small lake that gets bigger and bigger," he added.

64-year-old man missing

A 64-year-old man remained missing on Thursday.

The Cantonal Police of Valais said that a search and rescue operation was underway for the man. The police are also using a drone with a thermal camera.

Climate change and its impact

Head of the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS), Matthias Huss, had pointed to the influence of climate change in loosening the rock mass in the permafrost zone. "Unexpected things happen at places that we have not seen for hundreds of years, most probably due to climate change," he told Reuters.

In 2022 and 2023, the Swiss glaciers were severely impacted by climate change and melted, just like between 1960 and 1990, when they lost about 10 per cent of their volume.

Earlier in August 2017, around 3.1 million cubic metres of rock fell from Pizzo Cengalo, a mountain in the Alps in Graubuenden canton. The incident near the Italian border killed eight hikers.

With agency inputs.