The Valais village of Blatten marked one year since the glacier collapse buried most of the community.
One year ago, around ten million cubic metres of rock, debris and ice from the Birch glacier swept down on the Lötschental village in a matter of seconds.
An evacuation ordered days earlier saved hundreds of lives, but a 64-year-old man was killed and his body was only recovered weeks later, outside the evacuation zone.
The lake that formed after the collapse is still there, with turquoise water encircling the few houses left standing. Residents, politicians and journalists gathered at the site yesterday afternoon for a commemoration that doubles as a marker of the village's reconstruction.
However, questions are emerging over how more than around CHF 30 million of the CHF 72 million in donations have been distributed. CHF 28 million has already been paid out to residents and small businesses.
But around 30 million francs went directly to the commune of Blatten with no independent oversight.
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