GENEVA, June 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A body found near the Swiss village of Blatten, which was wiped out by a dramatic glacier collapse last month, was that of a man who had been missing, police said.
Rescuers had been looking for a missing 64-year-old man ever since the Birch glacier collapsed on May 28, sending scree, ice and mud hurtling down into the Lotschental valley in Switzerland’s southern Wallis region.
The disaster destroyed most of Blatten, which had been home to 300 people and was evacuated the week before due to the impending danger.
Houses which escaped the landslide become submerged in an artificial lake as the two-kilometre-long barricade of debris blocked the river Lonza in the valley floor.
On Tuesday, “a lifeless body was found and recovered in the Tennmatten area near Blatten”, Wallis police said in a statement.
“Formal identification confirmed that this was the 64-year-old man who had been missing.”
Search operations had been hampered by the instability of the rubble, while search dogs and drones had been deployed to try to find the missing man.
The body was found by an excavator operator who was conducting clean-up operations, the police said.
The Swiss army has begun working on clearing the landslide and debris from the glacier collapse.
The Birch glacier was below the 3,342-metre (10,965-foot) high Kleines Nesthorn peak.
In the fortnight before the glacier’s collapse, a series of falls from the mountain dumped three million cubic metres of rock onto the ice surface.
That increased the weight, and with the glacier on a steep slope, it ultimately gave way in dramatic fashion, plunging down on Blatten in the valley. — NNN-AGENCIES
