Parliament approves credit for clearing Mitholz ammunition depot

View of the rock face in Mitholz where an ammunition depot is located. Keystone / Peter Schneider

The clearance of the former ammunition depot in Mitholz in the Bernese Oberland has passed the next hurdle. Following the House of Representatives, the Senate has also approved a CHF2.59 billion ($2.9 billion) credit for the implementation of the project.

By 39 votes to zero and three abstentions, the Senate said yes to the commitment credit on Tuesday. The House of Representatives had approved the project at the beginning of May by 180 votes to five with eight abstentions. The bill has thus been cleared.

In December 1947, major explosions occurred in the former army ammunition depot near Mitholz in the municipality of Kandergrund, canton Bern. The depot partially collapsed and several people died from boulders that were hurled through the air. Dozens of houses were destroyed and several hundred tonnes of explosives were left in the rubble.

+ Historic press photos show the aftermath of Mitholz explosion

In 2018 a report by the defence ministry concluded that the ammunition depot had to be cleared due to continued high risks. The project can now be implemented.

How we work

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here. 

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to [e-mail].