A wave of ice and stones that sweeps along the slopes of a Swiss mountain. A collapsed glacier destroyed the village of Blatten Located in Switzerland this Wednesday. Here’s what we know.
What happened?
Part of the Birch glacier, in the Lötschental valley, south of Switzerland, won the mountain around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. He descended towards the village of Blatten, at an altitude of 1,500 m, according to local authorities.
Air images filmed Wednesday evening and broadcast on YouTube reveal the extent of the disaster. The village was largely striped from the map. Houses are immersed and for some, only the roofs emerge from muddy water. A sea of rubble covers the valley. Sixteen inhabitants of the communes of Wiler and Kippel, located downstream from Blatn, were evacuated as a precautionary measure, according to RTS.
According to Raphaël Mayoraz, cantonal manager in charge of managing natural dangers, “3 million m3 of rocks have fallen suddenly on the glacier taking it with them” in the valley.
What is the human assessment?
The authorities indicated that a person was missing, without further details. It would be a 64 -year -old man who was in the area concerned at the time of the event according to information from the Cantonal Police in Valais. Specialized rescuers try to find it using a drone equipped with a thermal camera and air support.
SPEECHLESS BEFORE / AFTER #Blatten
The magnitude of destruction after the 3:24 pm collapse of Birch Glacier is immense! 😱
All the forest has been razed and the ice/wood/debris dammed the Lonza river 🌊
Some buildings of Blatten are buried 🏠
📷 pomona pic.twitter.com/VU2hfJtE97
— Melaine Le Roy (@subfossilguy) May 28, 2025
The landslide destroyed the many dwellings in this small village. A support unit, especially psychological, was set up to help residents after they were able to realize the extent of destruction in the village.
The lake formed by debris tends to grow
In addition to the damage, the authorities are worried about the natural dam formed on the Lonza river and which causes the formation of a lake.
“The traffic jam is approximately two kilometers long on the Lonza (…) and it is like a mountain and of course, it creates a small lake which becomes increasingly large. And this is a risk that we have to monitor, ”said Raphaël Mayoraz on Wednesday.
This lake is growing from time to hour this Thursday morning. “We are going to try, today, to realize its dimensions,” explains Antoine Jacquod, a civil and military security official in the canton of Valais, at the Keystone-ATS press agency.
An artificial dam has been preventively emptied to contain the water repressed by the wall of ice, earth and rubble. If the water was to be overflowed with this artificial dam, it would then be necessary to think of evacuating the valley.
The Cantonal Government of Valais has asked the army to provide pumps to secure the river bed and clearing aircraft. “Knowing when you can concretely intervene are currently a great stranger,” admits Antoine Jacquod.
A “very, very rare” event
“We have lost the village today, but not our heart,” said the mayor of the small town during a press briefing, which had 300 inhabitants before its complete evacuation last week. The landslide of the glacier had been expected for several days, many rock landslides having already produced in the mountainous part which overlooks it.
It’s terrible to lose your house. In these difficult hours, I am in thought with the inhabitants and the inhabitants of Blatten.
-Karin Keller Ster (@keller_Sutter) May 28, 2025
“It’s very, very rare. We do not know an example in history and now everything has fallen, “he said.
“It is an extraordinary event,” added Albert Rösti, federal advisor in charge of the environment. The army went on the spot on Wednesday to assess the situation.
Karin Keller-Sutter, president of the Swiss Confederation, transmitted her “thoughts with the inhabitants and inhabitants” of the village.
