Swiss Village Wiped Off As Glacier Collapse Triggers Deadly Mudslide
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Within a few seconds, the collapse transformed the once-picturesque village into a debris wasteland.
A catastrophic landslide triggered by the partial collapse of the Birch Glacier in the Swiss Alps buried almost the entire of Blatten, a small Alpine village in Switzerland's Valais Canton.
A deluge of ice, mud and rock crashed down a mountain on Wednesday, engulfing some 90% of the village of Blatten. Dramatic footage from May 28 showed massive dust clouds filling the valley as the glacier collapsed, with a torrent of mud and boulders engulfing the hillsides and much of the village.
Aerial footage of Blatten in Switzerland after glacier collapse. pic.twitter.com/TsmSXhUgIa — Disasters Daily (@DisastersAndI) May 29, 2025
The village's 300 residents were already evacuated earlier in May after part of the mountain behind the Birch Glacier began to crumble.
Within a few seconds, the collapse transformed the once-picturesque village into a debris wasteland. The landslide also buried the Lonza River bed, raising concerns about potential flooding from dammed water flows.
Rescue teams with search dogs and thermal drone scans have continued looking for a missing 64-year-old man but have found nothing. Local police suspended the search on Thursday afternoon, saying the debris mounds were too unstable for now.
Swiss glaciologists attribute the accelerating glacier thaw to climate change, which has increased the risk of such disasters. The debris, estimated at 9 million metric tonnes, has left the village largely uninhabitable, with recovery expected to take years.
Werner Bellwald, a 65-year-old cultural studies expert, lost the wooden family house built in 1654 where he lived in Ried, a hamlet next to Blatten also wiped out by the deluge.
'You can't tell that there was ever a settlement there," he told Reuters. 'Things happened there that no one here thought were possible."
The Lonza River, which flows through the village, was dammed by the landslide, creating a large artificial lake and raising fears of downstream flooding.
'The water from the River Lonza cannot flow down the valley because there is an enormous plug," Raphael Mayoraz, a cantonal geologist, told Swiss national broadcaster SRF, saying floods in downstream villages were a possibility.
Breaking:A glacier collapse has buried the Swiss village of Blatten under mud. 💔The Lonza River is dammed and large parts of the town have been evacuated.
Tragic — but thanks to early warnings from scientists, lives were likely saved. #Switzerland #Blatten #ClimateCrisis … pic.twitter.com/ryxn8NlALL
— The Curious Quill (@PleasingRj) May 29, 2025
Up to 1 million cubic meters of water are accumulating daily as a result of the debris damming up the river, said Christian Huggel, a professor of environment and climate at the University of Zurich.
Matthias Ebener, a spokesperson for local authorities, said that buildings which had emerged intact from the landslide are now flooded and that some residents of neighbouring villages had been evacuated as a precaution.
Approximately 90 per cent of Blatten has been destroyed or buried. 'What I can tell you at the moment is that about 90 per cent of the village is covered or destroyed, so it's a major catastrophe that has happened here in Blatten," said Stephane Ganzer, head of security for the Valais region.
The incident has revived concern about the impact of rising temperatures on Alpine permafrost which has long frozen gravel and boulders in place, creating new mountain hazards.
For years, the Birch Glacier has been creeping down the mountainside, pressured by shifting debris near the summit.
Matthias Huss, head of the Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland (GLAMOS), pointed to the likely influence of climate change in loosening the rock mass in the permafrost zone, which triggered the collapse.
(With inputs from agencies)
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