GENEVA — A huge mass of rock and ice in the Swiss Alps sent plumes of dust skyward on Wednesday near a village that authorities had evacuated earlier this month as a precaution.
Video on social media showed the rumbling mudslide near Blatten, in the southern Lötschental valley. Images from the scene appeared to show several cabins partially submerged.
In recent days the authorities had ordered the evacuation of about 300 people, as well as all livestock from the village, amid fears that a 1.5 million cubic meter (52 million cubic feet) glacier above the village was at risk of collapse.
Local authorities were deploying by helicopter and across the area to assess the damage and whether there has been any casualties, Jonas Jeitziner, a spokesman for the Lötschental crisis center, told The Associated Press by phone.
In 2023, residents of the village of Brienz, in eastern Switzerland, were evacuated before a huge mass of rock slid down a mountainside, stopping just short of the settlement. Brienz was evacuated again last year because of the threat of a further rockslide.
