The Swiss village of Blatten has been partially destroyed after a huge chunk of glacier crashed down into the valley. Although the village had been evacuated some days ago because of fears the Birch glacier was disintegrating, one person has been reported missing, and many homes have been completely flattened. Blatten's mayor, Matthias Bellwald, said "the unimaginable has happened" but promised the village still had a future. Local authorities have requested support from the Swiss army's disaster relief unit and members of the Swiss government are on their way to the scene.

A 64-year-old man remained missing Thursday after a huge mass of rock and ice from a glacier crashed down a Swiss mountainside the day before. The landslide sent plumes of dust skyward and coated with mud nearly all of an Alpine village that authorities had evacuated earlier this month as a precaution. State Councilor Stéphane Ganzer told Radio Télévision Suisse that 90% of the village was destroyed. The Cantonal Police of Valais said that a search and rescue operation was underway for the man, whose name wasn’t made public, and it involved a drone with a thermal camera. The regional government said in a statement that a large chunk of the Birch Glacier above the village had broken off, causing the landslide, which also buried the nearby Lonza River bed, raising the possibility of dammed water flows.

A 64-year-old man has been reported missing after 90 per cent of the village of Blatten, in the Lötschental valley, was smothered by the avalanche on Wednesday afternoon. The village’s 300 inhabitants escaped mass casualties after authorities evacuated the area 10 days ago as a precaution. Video footage captured the moment about 3.5 million cubic metres of rock, snow and ice broke off the Birch Glacier, which looms above the village. Matthias Bellwald, the mayor of Blatten, said: “We’ve lost our village. The village is under rubble. We will rebuild.”