Stranded tourists evacuated from Swiss mountain by Air Zermatt helicopter

A road is blocked in Eisten after a landslide following severe weather, September 6, 2024

The flights, using Air Zermatt rescue helicopters, had to be approved by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA).

Helicopter crews have transported scores of tourists stranded at the top of one of Switzerland’s most popular mountain resorts after a mudslide cut off road access until at least next week.

Teams from the Air Zermatt rescue and helicopter service led the operation for what Swiss media said were about 2,200 tourists, mostly Swiss, caught at the Saas Fee resort in the southern Valais region.

Valais authorities said an overnight downpour into Thursday caused several rivers in the Saas Valley to burst their banks between the towns of Stalden and Saas-Balen.

They said the road was likely to be closed until at least early next week.

A road is blocked in Eisten after a landslide following severe weather, September 6, 2024

A road is blocked in Eisten after a landslide following severe weather, September 6, 2024Andrea

On Friday, public broadcaster RTS broadcast images of a long line of people, some dressed in hiking gear, waiting for the flights out.

The flights, using Air Zermatt helicopters, had to be approved by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA).

A spokesman for Air Zermatt said it wasn’t immediately able to estimate how many people had been evacuated in the late-afternoon operation that ran before nightfall.

But some tourists seemed happy to stay where they were.

“There are many senior citizens among the stranded tourists, not all of whom are necessarily in a hurry to leave,” said spokesperson for the regional crisis unit, Simon Bumann.