Brienz - A huge torrent of rubble and rocks is threatening to sweep away an entire Swiss village, which is why the 80 or so inhabitants have now had to leave their home.

The authorities had given the people of Brienz in the canton of Graubünden until midday on Sunday.

The farmers' livestock and a 500-year-old late Gothic altar in the church were brought to safety. The residents were accommodated with relatives or in vacation homes made available in the region.

For weeks, a mass of debris has been moving down the mountain behind the village at increasing speed.

The debris could also break away completely from the ground and thunder down into the valley. The volume is estimated at around 1.2 million cubic meters.

Something similar happened last year.

The authorities had already had the village evacuated a year and a half ago due to the threat of a huge rockfall on the slope above the village.

The people held out for weeksin other shelters before a torrent of rubble with around 1.7 million cubic meters of rock actually crashed into the valley one night in June. Meadows and a road were buried meters deep under rubble.

However, the torrent miraculously stopped a few meters from a house. However, much of the rock remained loose on the slope. This is now moving.

Geologists cannot predict when the rock will come down. It could take months.

"The most likely scenario at the moment is that nothing happens at all," said geologist Andreas Huwiler, Head of Natural Hazards and Protective Structures at the Graubünden Office for Forests and Natural Hazards, to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

The debris on the slope could also stabilize again or only continue to slide very slowly.