BONDO VILLAGE, BREGAGLIA, Switzerland (Reuters) — Rescue crews continued to search on Thursday (August 24) for eight people including Germans, Austrians and Swiss who have been missing for more than a day after a landslide struck a remote Swiss mountain valley near the Italian border.
Authorities evacuated around 100 people from the village of Bondo and airlifted hikers from nearby huts in the eastern canton of Grisons after rocks and mud hit the area on Wednesday (August 23).
Police said they were unable to contact eight people, six of whom had been reported missing by relatives, despite intensified searches by teams including an army helicopter outfitted with thermal sensing technology as well as rescue dogs.
The missing were described as hikers and climbers. No children or locals from the region were reported missing.
Bondo was to remain sealed off until 0800 GMT on Friday (August 25), in case of additional landslides.