Search suspended for 8 missing in Swiss landslide

Swiss police on Saturday indefinitely suspended their search for eight people who went missing in the first of two landslides that sent rocks, mud and debris into a Swiss Alpine village.

“All hints indicate that the missing persons were in the area of the first landslide on Wednesday,” Graubuenden kanton (state) police spokeswoman Sandra Scianguetta said.

More than 100 rescue workers have been looking for the four Germans, two Swiss and two Austrians since a landslide on Wednesday devastated the small village of Bondo near the Italian border.

The hikers had set off separately or in pairs and were believed to have been in the area of the mudslide.

A second mudslide on Friday hit houses in an area of Bondo that was already sealed off and evacuated because of the first.

Scianguetta said the possibility of more rock falls and mudslides posing a danger to the rescue teams was a factor in the decision to suspend the search.