Drama in Switzerland: Three German women die in landslide

Dramatic accident in southern Switzerland: A landslide buried several houses in Ticino at the weekend and cost three people their lives. The police have now announced that the dead are German holidaymakers.

The women, aged 73 and 76, came from Baden-Württemberg, police reported. They were found after a landslide in Fontana in the Maggia Valley. A spokesman said he assumed that at least two of the three knew each other.

It is difficult to say who lived in which house because only piles of rubble remained after the landslide. Five other people are still missing in Ticino after the storm. The police are still looking for them.

The Maggia River had swept away a bridge near Cevio, and the upper Maggia Valley was only accessible by air after the storms. Army personnel were sent to the area to assist with the clean-up work.

In one part of the valley there was neither electricity nor drinking water on Monday. In the neighboring canton of Valais, the rain and the flooding of the Rhône caused considerable property damage. A German († 67) was surprised by the masses of water in the basement of a hotel – and drowned in the floods.