Swiss police allow some villagers to go home after mudslide

GENEVA – Some residents of a village in eastern Switzerland pummeled by a rocky mudslide could return home Friday, police said, as searchers resumed the increasingly desperate hunt for eight missing people.

Graubuenden regional police said the evacuation order was gradually being lifted after Wednesday’s rockfall and mudslide in Bondo, on the Italian border about 130 kilometres (80 miles) north of Milan.

Two Austrians, four Germans, and two Swiss remained missing, said police spokeswoman Chiarella Piana. They had set off separately or in pairs, and were believed to have been hiking in the area of the mudslide, she said.

“The more time wears on, the harder the search becomes,” Piana said, adding that the search would continue until they were found or authorities deemed it was virtually certain that they could not be located.

Police have sealed off airspace for a five-kilometre (three-mile) radius until Monday to give priority access to rescuers, who had suspended the search overnight. Search teams with dogs fanned out again, and excavators picked through the rubble in the village centre.

In the area hit by the slide, homes were divided into colour-coded red, orange and green zones, Piana said. Residents in the green areas were allowed to return home, and those in the red zone could briefly re-enter their homes to gather some personal belongings.

Authorities say about 4 million cubic meters (140 million cubic feet) of rocks and mud rolled through the village, prompting the immediate evacuation of about 100 residents.

News reports said some residents feared another mudslide could hit.