Astonishing photos show huge rockslide that missed Swiss village ‘by a hair’

The rockslide that threatened the tiny hamlet of Brienz finally fell from the mountain, coming to rest just metres from the village.

Talk about a close call.

The tiny Swiss mountain village of Brienz narrowly avoided being buried in a rockslide Thursday evening, with millions of cubic metres of stone stopping mere inches from houses and other structures.

Brienz, Switzerland was evacuated last month as a safety precaution. Eighty-four residents were told to abandon the village on May 12 over fears it would be buried under the Alpine rocks that were threatening to tumble down from the nearby mountain. At the time, rock movements on the slope were accelerating.

Since then, farmers have been allowed to re-enter for short periods of time to tend to their crops and residents were permitted 90-minute visits to retrieve essential items.

On Friday, authorities from the Albula municipality, which includes Brienz, tweeted that a large part of the mountain broke off in the middle of the night.

Albula spokesperson Christian Gartmann said the huge rockfall had only been heard, not seen, because the mountainside broke free in the middle of the night. But the rocks made a lot of noise, he said.

Large boulders and scree missed the empty hamlet “by a hair,” local authorities said in a statement.