More rocks crash down from Piz Cengalo

The Piz Cengalo and Piz Badile, as seen before the latest landslide, on September 13 Keystone

There has been further landslide of rocks and earth from the Piz Cengalo mountain above Bondo. Nobody was hurt.

The region was hit by a huge landslide on August 23 when the mountain on the Swiss-Italian border collapsed, causing a huge landslide in the village of Bondo. 

The fresh rockfall came on Friday evening. There has been no mudslide so far, but there still a risk of one happening, the local authorities in Bregaglia said. 

People living in Bondo, Spino and Sottoponte are expected to return to their houses in the afternoon. 

Officials in Bregaglia had already warned on Friday that a rock mass of between 200,000 and 500,000 metres squared was on the move. Nobody was in the danger zone though so they did not increase safety measures.

Missing hikers

Last month, some three million cubic metres of rock and earth fell from Piz Cengalo above Bondo causing a landslide that left eight hikers missing. The search for the hikers has been called off. 

Graubünden’s government has pledged CHF800,000 ($838,900) in aid to cover initial cleanup costs. 

The landslide was one of the largest to hit Switzerland in the last century. Piz Cengalo had been under observation since 2011, when another – albeit largely unnoticed – landslide caused 1.5 million cubic metres of the mountainside to collapse.

The region is currently being monitored 24 hours a day in case of further landslides.