Search Suspended for Missing Man in Swiss Glacier Collapse That Destroyed 90 Percent of an Alpine Village

A large avalanche with a mixture of ice, rock, snow and water reach the valley floor is pictured in Wiler after the Birch glacier collapsing above Blatten, Switzerland, Wednesday, May 28, 2025. Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP

GENEVA—The search for a missing 64-year-old man was suspended Thursday because of unsafe conditions 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 percent of the village was destroyed.