A third body was found in the Maggia Valley in Ticino and one person also died in the canton of Valais, the authorities announced. After the landslide in the Maggia Valley in the Swiss canton of Ticino, rescuers from the air rescue service had already recovered two dead bodies on Sunday.
The accident occurred in the Fontana area, according to the Ticino cantonal police. They did not initially provide any information regarding the identity of the victims. Identification is in progress, they said. Bad weather had previously made rescue operations difficult. The road through the Maggia Valley was also interrupted, and several side valleys were no longer accessible by land.
- HONEY: Severe storms have caused tragic accidents in several European countries.
The campsites along the Maggia were also evacuated, it said. In some of the affected areas, electricity and internet connections failed, as the newspaper “La Regione” reported online.
Rhone overflowed its banks
During the night into Sunday, storms swept across Switzerland and brought a lot of water. Flooding occurred in Ticino and Zermatt, and the Rhone in Valais overflowed its banks in several places. Flooding also occurred on the tributaries. The highest level of the Rhone flood was reached in the Upper Valais on the night of Sunday, the cantonal management body (KFO) wrote in a statement. It is expected to reach the Lower Valais in the morning.
Photo gallery: Devastation following severe storms in Switzerland
SWITZERLAND-DISASTER-FLOOD (Foto: PIERO CRUCIATTI (AFP)) Bild 1/19
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Due to the situation, the Valais cantonal authorities also declared the alert level for the Rhone itself. On Saturday followingnoon they had already done this for the Rhone’s tributaries.
According to the SBB, there were restrictions on rail traffic around Riddes due to flooding. According to the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, there was also an interruption on the Visp-Andermatt route due to the risk of flooding. The federal government’s natural hazards portal warned of the risk of flooding for the Rhone from the Saltina estuary to Lake Geneva, as can be seen on the website.
Videos were also circulating on the X platform, which were supposed to show flooding in the municipality of Zermatt VS. The Federal Roads Office Astra reported on its website that the access road between Täsch and Zermatt was closed due to flooding.
