With heavy hearts, residents of Brindz today began evacuating their small village in the southeastern Alps as it is threatened by the imminent collapse of part of the mountain that covers it.

The 85 residents of the picturesque village, which is just 30km from Davos and 50km from St Moritz, will have to leave their homes by 6pm on Friday evening. The authorities decided to speed up the process as they found that the rocks, weighing millions of tons, are moving faster than experts had previously estimated.

“I wanted to go up one last time and say goodbye to my parents’ house. We don’t know if Brindz will still exist in two weeks,” a woman who grew up in the mountain village told Keystone-ATS. With tears in her eyes, she explained that it was difficult to say goodbye since for a long time she believed that evacuation would not be necessary.

Above the village, countless rocks, roughly the size of a garden house, are scattered across the meadow. Stones and smaller rocks tumble down the mountain at regular intervals. The phenomenon has intensified in recent weeks, as Christian Gartmann, the press officer of the Albula community, which includes Brindz, a village first mentioned in written texts in the mid-9th century, explained.

Weather conditions accelerate the phenomenon and residents will not be able to return to the area for many weeks or even months.

In total, 2 million cubic meters of rock threaten the village, but the damage is difficult to predict.