Mountain collapse shock for village

RESIDENTS of a French village have been shocked to discover part of their natural landscape has changed shape, after the collapse of a 200m high section of mountain.

It is believed that several hundred thousand cubic metres of rock collapsed, destroying a section of forest during the night of Friday January 8 to Saturday January 9.

However the first indication that many villagers of Entremont-le-Vieux in Chartreuse, Savoie had was when clouds lifted on Sunday to reveal the new shape of the Mont Granier cliffs.

One of the closest inhabitants to the collapse, Eddy Dubuc, told France 3 that he had heard a noise during the night but had assumed it was the snowplough.

While Mr Dubuc said the rock fall had destroyed “a good spot for mushrooms”, previous collapses have been much more damaging.

Records show that a collapse of the same cliffs on November 12, 1248 killed nearly 1,000 people as 500 million metres of rock crashed down.

Teams have been carrying out risk evaluations on the remaining cliff face and on the rubble, as some large blocks pose a danger that they could fall further as it settles.