Blatten, a village of 300 inhabitants nestled in a Swiss valley, has been partially destroyed by a huge chunk of a glacier tumbling down upon it.
Fortunately, this didn’t come as a total surprise: the village was evacuated several days before, after geologists warned that the glacier had become unstable.
However, one person has been reported missing.
Many have been left alive but homeless.
The Swiss government has hastened to the village, along with the Swiss army’s disaster relief unit.
Fighting back tears, Blatten’s Mayor Bellwald said: “We have lost our village, but not our heart. We will support each other and console each other. After a long night, it will be morning again.”
Although there is no guarantee that the current situation will make it possible for locals to return to their village, the Swiss government has promised to fund their stay within the village’s locality — but because of the glacier’s size, it wouldn’t be illogical to wonder if other villages might be affected the same predicament.
The disaster is the result of climate change, with permafrost melting.
Video footage is terrifying: the glacier unleashed a mud avalanche which roared deafeningly as it tumbled down the valley, leaving a massive cloud of dust in its wake.
Other Swiss villages have been evacuated in recent years. Locals have only been able to return for short periods of time ever since.
Landslides have proved dangerous and deadly.
