Eight people, including German, Austrian and Swiss citizens, are missing following a landslide in southeastern Switzerland on Wednesday, police said Thursday.
The landslide sent mud, rocks and dirt flooding down the Piz Cengalo mountain into the outskirts of the village of Bondo, near the Italian border, cutting off roads and forcing evacuations.
Some 100 people had to leave their homes in the area, and authorities airlifted hikers from nearby huts in the eastern canton of the Grisons.
Missing: Eight people are unaccounted for following yesterday’s mudslide in Switzerland
Devastation: An emergency worker watches the site of a massive landslide that hit the village Bondo in South Switzerland
Police had initially announced that no one was hurt in the landslide, but on Thursday acknowledged that rescue workers were flying over the area in search of mountain climbers and hikers who might have been hit by the slide.
Six of the eight people known to have been in the area and who have not yet been located had been reported missing by their relatives, the police said, adding that the search for them had intensified overnight, with a Swiss army helicopter taking part.
‘The missing persons are nationals from Germany, Austria and Switzerland,’ the police said.
‘There are often hikers in the affected area,’ Graubunden police spokesman Markus Walser told the Blick daily, adding that the area did not have mobile phone reception.
‘We hope this is the reason we have not been able to reach the people believed to be in the area,’ he added.
On watch: An official watches the massive landslide that hit the village Bondo, where authorities are searching for missing
You shall not pass: This image shows the destruction caused by the landslide in Bondo village
Mystery: Six of the people missing were reported by family members, and so far no casualties have been reported
Big clean up: The main road between Stampa and Castasegna is disconnected and the village has been evacuated
Images showed an unstoppable mass of thick mud and sludge moving down the mountainside like lava, ripping apart at least one building in its path and partially engulfing others.
A broad swathe of farmland was covered in a grey, moving mass.
Police said 12 farm buildings, including barns and stables, had been destroyed by the flow of debris, while Graubunden’s main southern highway, linking Stampa to Castasegna, was closed to traffic.
Police on Wednesday evacuated Bondo, and had also evacuated two Alpine cabins, pointing to the risk of further landslides.
Residents have not yet been permitted to return home. Authorities said they would reevaluate the situation Thursday afternoon.
The mudslide follows a stark warning issues by experts and scientists last week that global warming is causing the Alps to crumble.
Lost valley: The village is nestled in a valley in an area of Switzerland popular with hikers
The main road between Stampa and Castasegna is disconnected following the landslide which took place on Wednesday
Authorities airlifted hikers from nearby huts in the eastern canton of the Grisons after rocks and mud hit the area
Scientists say that the temperature in the Alps has risen by 1.5 degrees Celsius over the last century, double the worldwide average.
The rise in temperature is melting the Alps’ permafrost – soil, sediment, or rock that stays frozen for at least two years – causing rock avalanches and floods.
Climate experts say that the ski season in the Alps will be significantly shorter in the future, with 70 per cent of the current snow cover in Switzerland gone by the end of the century.
In the summer months, the Alpine nations can expect mountains crumbling, destruction of infrastructure and even drinking water becoming contaminated by the melting permafrost.
Wednesday’s landslide was not the first to hit Piz Cengalo,
High tide: Mud and water flows through the village of Bondo as a house stands empty following the evactuation
Blocked: It is not known when the local residents can return to the village or how long the cleanup will tak
Search: An army helicopter has been deployed as part of the search for the missing people
In 2012, nearly 400 million cubic metres of mud, rocks and gravel – the equivalent of 4,000 standard-sized houses – poured down the mountainside, landing in an uninhabited valley.
Following that incident, an automatic debris alarm system was installed.
That alarm was set off when Wednesday’s landslide barrelled down the mountain at 9.30am (7.30 GMT), police said, sparking an immediate deployment of emergency services.
The last deadly landslide to hit Switzerland happened in November 2014, when the earthfall caused a building in Davesco-Soragno in the southern canton of Ticino, killing two people and injuring four others.
One of the worst such accidents in the wealthy Alpine country in recent years happened in 2000, when 12 people perished and four others were declared missing after floods set sediment moving in the canton of Valais.