A video shared on social media has showen the dramatic moment when the glacier partially collapsed, creating a huge cloud that covered part of the mountain as rock and debris came cascading down towards the village of Blatten.
Officials said millions of cubic metres of rock and soil have tumbled down since Blatten was first evacuated this month when part of the mountain behind the glacier began to crumble, sparking warnings it could bring the ice mass down with it.
Buildings and infrastructure in Blatten, whose roughly 300 inhabitants were evacuated on May 19 after geologists identified the risk of an imminent avalanche of rock and ice from above, were battered by the rockslide, officials said. One person is reportedly missing.