Swiss village of Brienz told to flee imminent monster rockslide

Residents of the tiny Swiss village of Brienz have been told to pack their bags and leave immediately.

The reason: two million cubic metres of rock from the mountain above them is set to come loose and crash down to the valley in the next few days.

The evacuation order has not come as a complete surprise to the remaining population of about 70 villagers.

Brienz, in the eastern canton of Graubünden, has been judged a geological risk for some time.

The village itself is built on land that is subsiding down towards the valley, causing the church spire to lean and large cracks to appear in buildings.

Work was under way to try to stabilise that and there were signs the slippage might be slowing down. But ominously, the mountainside above Brienz was in the meantime breaking apart.

Villagers had become accustomed to quite large boulders tumbling down to their gardens below.