Swiss village destroyed by landslide in ‘major catastrophe’

A large avalanche with a mixture of ice, rock, snow and water reached the valley floor (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone via AP)

A huge mass of rock and ice from a glacier has thundered down a mountainside in Switzerland, destroying nearly all of a village in the valley below.

Video on social media and Swiss TV showed the mudslide near Blatten, in the southern Lotschental valley, with homes and buildings partially submerged under a mass of brown sludge.