Swiss officials halt further evacuations after glacier collapse

The Birch glacier in Switzerland's southern Valais region collapsed on Wednesday, sending a mass of rock, ice and scree hurtling into the village of Blatten in the valley below. The huge pile of glacier debris, stretching across two kilometres (1.3 miles), has blocked the river Lonza and created an artificial lake, potentially posing threats of flooding in the Lotschental valley below. "We absolutely cannot let our guard down," Raphael Mayoraz, a geologist working with the Valais canton, told public television.