Swiss president vows aid after glacier destroys village

Swiss President Karin Keller‑Sutter said on Friday (May 30) that a small alpine village had been affected by an "indescribable" disaster when millions of cubic meters of ice, mud and rock crashed down onto it this week. Most of the Swiss village of Blatten was seen submerged under water, mud and rock on Thursday. It comes a day after a large chunk of a glacier came crashing down a mountain, engulfing some 90% of the village. Blatten’s 300 residents had already been evacuated earlier in May after part of the mountain behind the Birch Glacier began to crumble. Rescue teams have continued looking for a missing 64‑year‑old man, but have so far found nothing. A spokesperson for local authorities said that buildings which had emerged intact from the landslide are now flooded and that some residents of neighboring villages had been evacuated as a precaution. Some experts have warned of the risks of flooding as vast mounds of debris are clogging the path of the River Lonza, causing a huge lake to swell amid the wreckage. Mylene Jacquemart, a glaciologist, explained that a large rock instability developed above the glacier, with rocks falling onto the glacier, and that climate change is a main driver behind big changes in the mountains, affecting rock slope stability.