Man, 64, Missing After Majority of Swiss Village Is Swallowed by ‘Gigantic Landslide’ Following Glacier Collapse

A man is missing after the majority of a picturesque village in Switzerland was buried after a glacier collapsed.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, May 28, almost “the entire Birch Glacier, located above Blatten, collapsed, causing a gigantic landslide,” a May 29 press release shared by the Valais government confirmed. Eerie footage showed ice, mud and debris flowing near the village, which is located in the Valais region around 55 miles south of the Swiss capital Bern.

“At the bottom of the valley, a huge deposit of ice and rock, several dozen meters thick and approximately two kilometers long, buried most of the village of Blatten. The damage is considerable,” a translated government post said, adding that “one person is missing.”

The Cantonal Police of Valais told PEOPLE in an email, “Despite intensive efforts, the 64-year-old man, who according to initial findings was in the affected area at the time of the incident, has not yet been found. The search is ongoing.” 

According to a translated police press release, the person was reported missing at around 4:35 p.m. local time on Wednesday.

The local government confirmed in a release following the glacier collapse that 300 residents had been evacuated from the village on Monday, May 19, “as a precaution.” The BBC reported that geologists monitoring the area had warned that the glacier appeared unstable.

The regional government continued in Thursday’s translated press release, “The Lonza River is blocked, and a lake is forming. The challenge lies in the behavior of this accumulation of water and the Lonza River, which could cause a torrential lava flow if the river overflows onto the deposit.”

The release stated that “significant resources have been deployed to deal with this situation,” adding that the army was “preparing to deploy its resources.” 

“Civil protection has also been mobilized. The population is ordered to strictly comply with the authorities’ instructions and not to travel to the affected area. The Cantonal Management Body is continuously analyzing the situation,” the release added. 

The government said, “Valais will use all means at its disposal to best support the population affected by this tragic event.”

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Blatten’s mayor, Matthias Bellwald, said at the press conference, per Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF), “We’ve lost the village, but not the heart.”

Bellwald had previously said that “the unimaginable has happened,” the BBC reported.

Stephane Ganzer, the head of security in the southern Valais region, told local TV channel Canal9, “What I can tell you at the moment is that about 90% of the village is covered or destroyed, so it’s a major catastrophe that has happened here in Blatten,” per the Associated Press.