Huge glacier collapse carrying 10 million tons of rubble destroys village

A glacier collapsed in Switzerland and almost entirely destroyed a village and blocked the flow of a nearby river.

On Wednesday (28 May), the Swiss village of Blatten, located in the Alps in the Valais Canton region of southern Switzerland, was almost completely flattened by falling ice, mud and rock after a glacier in the surrounding mountains collapsed.

It occurred when a portion of the Birch Glacier fell from the summit of Petit Nethorn Mountain at around 3.30 pm local time.

The remnants fell onto Blatten village, which, prior to the incident, was home to 300 residents. Around 90 per cent of all the buildings in the area were flattened and the debris blocked the flow of the adjacent Lorza River.

Thankfully, no injuries were reported as the village was evacuated this month prior to the landslide because of concerns that the glacier may fall.

One person is missing, the news agency Reuters reports.

“We’ve lost our village,” Matthias Bellwald, Blatten’s mayor, said at press conference. “The village is under rubble. We will rebuild.”

The chief of the Natural Dangers Service for Valais, Raphael Mayoraz, told Le Tempsthat around nine million metric tonnes (10 million tons) of rubble fell onto the village and the surrounding area.

According to local news, the blocked flow of the Lorza River is now forming a lake behind it. There is a reported debris cone that stretches for 1.24 miles (two kilometres) along the river’s path and is between 160 and 650 feet (50 to 200 meters) wide.

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