On Wednesday, a landslide from the mountain side of Birch Glacier -- located in the Lötschental valley in northern Switzerland -- flattened homes in the Alpine town of Blatten after a large chunk of the glacier broke off, Bethan Davies, a professor of glaciology at Newcastle University in the U.K., told ABC News.

A cascade of events in the Swiss Alps led to the dramatic collapse of the Birch glacier, wiping out Blatten village in the valley below, glaciologists and geoscientists told AFP on Friday.

The Valais local government said the damage is "considerable," with one person missing and homes under debris.

Authorities say a small Alpine river dammed by a landslide that largely buried the Swiss village of Blatten is now flowing through the debris, and the level of a newly created lake that raised worries

The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts say.