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One dead after Swiss landslide causes carnage

An 82-year-old woman was found dead in a Swiss stream on Sunday, police said, as heavy rain and landslides halted train and road traffic near the city of Bern, the capital.

Published: 13 July 2014 15:32 CEST
One dead after Swiss landslide causes carnage
Damage from a landslide in eastern Switzerland in 2012. Photo:Graubรผnden Police/ AFP/File

Police said that the woman died in Thörishaus, a village southwest of Bern, as parts of the country were hit by a deluge.

In the nearby town of Köniz, 200 firefighters worked throughout the night to deal with flooded streams and landslides, evacuating several homes.

Landslides blocked the railway between Bern and the western city of Fribourg and between Montreux and Zweisimmen, while flooding cut the line between the capital and the town of Thun, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) said.

Buses were pressed into service to provide alternative transport between Bern and Fribourg.

SBB said InterCity and InterRegio trains between the two cities will likely not running until 2pm on Monday. 

Flooding also caused disruptions on the Bern-Thun rail line.

Flooding also forced the closure of several roads in the region, national road company Viasuisse said.

Bern and Fribourg were hit by heavy rain that began on Saturday and continued non-stop until midnight.
 

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WEATHER

IN PICTURES: ‘Exceptional’ Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

An "exceptional" dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent's climate monitor said on Monday, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime.

Published: 8 April 2024 14:15 CEST
IN PICTURES: 'Exceptional' Sahara dust cloud hits Europe

Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service said the latest plume, the third of its kind in recent weeks, was bringing hazy conditions to southern Europe and would sweep northward as far as Scandinavia.

Mark Parrington, senior scientist at Copernicus, said the latest event was related to a weather pattern that has brought warmer weather to parts of Europe in recent days.

“While it is not unusual for Saharan dust plumes to reach Europe, there has been an increase in the intensity and frequency of such episodes in recent years, which could be potentially attributed to changes in atmospheric circulation patterns,” he said.

This latest episode has caused air quality to deteriorate in several countries, Copernicus said.

The European Union’s safe threshold for concentrations of PM10 — coarser particles like sand and dust that that can irritate the nose and throat — has already been exceeded in some locations.

A picture taken on April 8, 2024 shows a rapeseed field under thick sand dust blown in from the Sahara, giving the sky a yellowish appearance near Daillens, western Switzerland. – An “exceptional” dust cloud from the Sahara is choking parts of Europe, the continent’s climate monitor said, causing poor air quality and coating windows and cars in grime. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

The worst affected was the Iberian Peninsula in Spain but lesser air pollution spikes were also recorded in parts of Switzerland, France and Germany.

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Local authorities in southeastern and southern France announced that the air pollution threshold was breached on Saturday.

They advised residents to avoid intense physical activity, particularly those with heart or respiratory problems.

The dust outbreak was expected to reach Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia before ending on Tuesday with a shift in weather patterns, Copernicus said.

The Sahara emits between 60 and 200 million tonnes of fine dust every year, which can travel thousands of kilometres (miles), carried by winds and certain meteorological conditions.

The Spanish Canary Islands off the coast of northwest Africa saw just 12 days within a 90-day period from December to February where skies were free of Saharan dust, the local weather agency Aemet had reported.

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