Swiss hit by mudslides

A mudslide set off by heavy rain caused injuries and damaged parts of Schlans, a village in eastern Switzerland, police said. It appeared by evening that there were no fatalities.

“The mudslide went right through the middle of the village and hit some houses,” said Pierino Zanin, spokesman for the Graubuenden cantonal (state) police.

Four workers cleaning up a mudslide from a road about six miles east of Schlans were injured when they were caught in a second slide. They were taken to hospital, officials said.

A helicopter pilot was able to evacuate “several” of the injured from Schlans, which is in a remote mountainous area about 60 miles north of the southern city of Locarno, officials said.

The nearly 100 other residents were able to reach safety by Saturday evening, many of them by walking down the steep mountainside into the valley, Zanin said.

Altogether hundreds of people were evacuated from mudslide-threatened areas, said Markus Reinhardt, chief of Graubuenden police. He told Swiss television that by nightfall no one was listed as missing.

Elsewhere in the Alpine regions of Switzerland rail and road traffic was blocked or slowed by mudslides and high water.

Heavy snowfall up to 5.25 feet deep in the mountains added to the danger, and a number of avalanches occurred.

Lake Maggiore, which extends from Locarno south into Italy, overflowed some of its banks.

Train traffic was interrupted on the two major north-south routes, connecting Italy and Germany through Switzerland, Swiss Railways said.