Swiss authorities announced that a large glacier in the Alps collapsed on Wednesday afternoon (May 28), causing a massive amount of ice, mud, and rocks to fall down and bury a mountain village that had been evacuated earlier this month due to landslide risks.
According to reports from Swiss National Broadcasting Corporation SRF, the village of Blatten in the Loetschental valley in southern Switzerland was severely destroyed in the collapse. Around 300 residents of the village had been evacuated on May 19 when geologists warned of the potential for avalanches of ice and rocks from the slopes above at any moment.
Since the evacuation order was issued, Swiss authorities have been monitoring the dangerous slopes above the village of Blatten. Matthias Ebener, a spokesperson for the Valais canton, mentioned that one person is currently missing.
The official statement from the village of Blatten released at 4:30 pm on Wednesday stated, “An unbelievable event has occurred. About 45 minutes ago, a very large-scale glacier collapse took place, affecting a significant area of the village.”
Drone footage released by SRF shows that parts of the village of Blatten, as well as the local river and surrounding forested slopes, have been completely covered with thick mud and debris, with debris of wooden structures scattered on both sides of the rock and mud pile.
Ebener described the situation as, “An incredible amount of material pouring down and rushing into the valley.”
SRF on-site reporters reported that the glacier initially showed significant fractures on Tuesday night, followed by rapidly increasing rates and scale of collapse. While it has not completely disintegrated overall, the amount of ice pushed into the valley has reached the highest level on record.
What’s particularly astonishing is that a large-scale collapse occurred again around 4 am on Wednesday, estimated to involve thousands of cubic meters of ice and rocks cascading down, creating a dramatic scene.
Thermal imaging drone footage shows that the area of the cone-shaped accumulation of rocks and debris at the valley bottom is nearly twice the size of the previous night. Despite the massive amount of ice, local avalanche protection barriers have effectively guided the sliding material into uninhabited areas, preventing a direct impact on residential areas.
A widely circulated video on social media captured the dramatic moment of the glacier partially collapsing, with a huge dust cloud obscuring the mountaintop, massive rocks and debris falling thunderously on the outskirts of the village, creating a harrowing and breathtaking scene.