Swiss Village Evacuated as Huge Rock Mass Teeters Over Homes: 'Nothing You Can Do Against Nature'

Leaders of the village in Breiz, Switzerland, told residents to evacuate their homes by 6 p.m. local time on Friday

A village in eastern Switzerland has been ordered to evacuate due to the threat of a large mass of rock crashing down on it, according to multiple outlets.

Leaders of the village of Breiz held a meeting on Tuesday and decided that the safest option would be to have all the residents evacuate by 6 p.m. local time on Friday, though they would still be able to go in and out of the city depending on the risk level, per the Associated Press.

The village, which is home to less than 100 residents and located in the eastern canton of Graubünden, sits beneath a large mountain with several rock formations, BBC reported.

Officials at the early warning service said their measurements indicated "strong acceleration over a large area" of the mountain recently, and said that "up to 2 million cubic meters of rock material will collapse or slide in the coming seven to 24 days," per the AP.

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The landslide has been moving about three feet per year, allowing massive boulders to crash down occasionally, the BBC and AP reported. The village itself has also slowly moved a few inches each year since it was created centuries ago, leading to cracks in its buildings.

Christian Gartmann, a member of the crisis management board, told the AP that there is a 60 percent chance that the rocks in the mountains will fall in smaller chunks, avoiding destruction to the village. He added, however, that there is a 10 percent chance that the entire rock mass could come tumbling down, threatening lives.

"We hope that the village stays intact," Gartmann told the AP. "We can't eliminate the possibility that [the rock] will come down. ... It could damage the village or destroy it."

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One of the main factors leading to the potential threat of the rock mass falling down is climate change. Rebecca Dell, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, told CNN that higher climates are melting glaciers in the Alps, making rocks unstable.

"This melt may destabilize the mountain slopes above towns and villages," Dell told the outlet. If a slope becomes too unstable, events such as rockslides may occur."

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Federico Pelico, a pastor in Albula and Brienz, told the AP that villagers are "suddenly realizing that something terrible might happen."

"They have to leave their village," he said. "These aren't just buildings. There are emotions and histories here. I've seen a lot of tears lately."

"There's nothing you can do against nature," Pelico added. "But deep in their hearts, there's hope that they'll be able to return to the village."

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