May 29 (UPI) -- Rescuers in the Swiss Alps were searching for at least one person missing after 1.5 million cubic meters of ice, rock and mud from an imploding glacier engulfed a village in the Lotschental Valley in the southwest of the country.
Authorities, including the military, were using drones and helicopters to access the area to search for casualties and assess the damage after a huge section of the Birch glacier, which sits atop Kleine Nesthorn above the village of Blatten at an altitude of between 8,350 and 11,000 feet, broke off Wednesday afternoon.
"An unbelievable amount of material thundered down into the valley," said Valais Canton spokesperson Matthias Ebener, who confirmed one person was unaccounted for but gave no further details.
The 300 inhabitants of the village, 35 miles north of Zermatt, were evacuated nine days earlier because of the threat posed by the Birch glacier, which geologists said had become unstable due to thawing.
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