Relieved residents of a village in south-east Switzerland say a huge rock mass, which was feared would fall and destroy their homes, has come down but stopped just short of the settlement. 

Brienz was evacuated in early May after 1.9 million cubic metres of rock was deemed at risk of breaking away and potentially destroying the village.

Most of the rock mass tumbled late on Thursday night, with the head of the local council saying the rockslide stopped just short of Brienz, leaving a “metres-high deposit” in front of the school building.

“We can say that today is one of the best days since the evacuation,” Daniel Albertin said.

“The wait for the mountain was long. But now the mountain has come down as we envisioned, and … a great deal has come down, but nothing is damaged in the village and no inhabitants were harmed.”

About two-thirds of the rock — somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 million cubic metres — appears to have come down the slope, geologist Stefan Schneider said at a news conference.

“This is very good news because the danger … to the village has become much smaller,” he said.

Residents had been able to come back to retrieve items from time to time but only for 90 minutes at a time.

Officials had said that experts saw a 60 per cent chance of the rock falling in smaller chunks that might not reach the village or valley, but also a 10 per cent chance that the entire mass would tumble down, threatening lives and property.

They said the chances of residents returning to the village was high, but they could not confirm when that might be.

“The people of Brienz will still have to be a bit patient before they can move back,” Mr Albertin said.

“We have to carry out further evaluations before we can give them enough security to be able to move back to their village and continue living or working there.”

AP/ABC