Swiss officials have tonight called off a search for eight people missing since a huge landslide struck near the border with Italy,
Rescue workers believe those not accounted for were buried under millions of tons of rock.
The small village of Bondo was partly buried on Wednesday under metres of collapsing mountain, and regional police said they were expecting more rock and mudslides in the area.
The small village of Bondo was partly buried on Wednesday under metres of collapsing mountain
Lieutenant Andrea Mittner of the Grisons Canton Police said: ‘We have done everything we could to search for these eight people’
The missing, all hikers, are two Austrians, four Germans and two Swiss.
‘We have done everything we could to search for these eight people,’ lieutenant Andrea Mittner of the Grisons canton police told a news conference broadcast on Swiss television.
‘We used helicopters, dogs and rescue teams and we still did not find anybody. We have to reconcile ourselves to the fact that we will not find anybody.’
After police warned about the risk of more slides, a geologist flew over the site in a helicopter early on Saturday to inspect the 3,369-metre Piz Cengalo mountain.
It happened at the village of Bondo, close to the Swiss border with Italy, on Wednesday, and police tonight called off the search for eight missing hikers
A rescue helicopter hovers over the Swiss village of Bondo after the landslide, which left eight people missing
Experts have said melting permafrost due to high temperatures was one likely factor in the disaster, but the impact of changes in the mountain’s structure over thousands of years appeared to have played a bigger role.
Police are investigating the circumstances of the tragedy to determine if anybody was at fault.
Bondo community leaders said they had sought to make the area as safe as possible, introducing flood-control improvements following a smaller landslide in 2011 and warnings about the unstable terrain.
‘What happened fills us with deep regret, but I think we have done everything humanly possible,’ mayor Anna Giacometti told state TV in an interview broadcast on Saturday.
Mayor Anna Giacometti told state TV said: ‘What happened fills us with deep regret, but I think we have done everything humanly possible’
Police are investigating the circumstances of the tragedy to determine if anybody was at fault