Authorities had evacuated around 100 people from the village of Bondo and airlifted hikers from nearby huts in the eastern canton of the Grisons after rocks and mud hit the area on Wednesday.
Rescue crews are searching for as many as 14 people including Germans, Austrians and Swiss who have been missing for more than a day after a landslide struck a remote Swiss valley near the Italian border, police said on Thursday.
Authorities had evacuated around 100 people from the village of Bondo and airlifted hikers from nearby huts in the eastern canton of the Grisons after rocks and mud hit the area on Wednesday.
Police said they were unable to reach eight people in the area, six of whom had been reported missing by relatives, despite intensified searches by teams including an army helicopter outfitted with thermal sensing technology as well as rescue dogs.
At a news conference on Thursday, police officials added that a separate group of six people may also be missing, though it was unclear from family members who made the report at about 1130 GMT whether these individuals were in the area where the landslide occurred or if they were somewhere else.
"The relatives don't know just where they were," Lt. Andrea Mittner said at a news conference televised on Swiss state broadcaster SRF.
Those missing were described as hikers and climbers.
No children or locals from the region were among those reported missing.
Austria's Foreign Ministry said two Austrians were among the missing.
The landslide's force registered a magnitude of 3 on the Richter Scale, Mittner said, equivalent to a small earthquake that can be felt by people and may shake indoor objects.
"You can imagine just what a mass had to come down to cause an earthquake scenario," he said.
Bondo will remain closed until 0800 GMT on Friday, Mittner said. Additional landslides are possible. About 120 rescue workers are on the scene.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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