Helicopter evacuation offered to tourists stranded in Swiss valley

Hundreds of tourists who are still stuck in the Saas Valley in canton Valais after Thursday's landslide can be evacuated. Special helicopter flights are planned for Friday afternoon. Around 2,200 people, mainly Swiss tourists, are currently trapped in the valley, which was cut off from the outside world after the storms. Simon Bumann, spokesman for the regional crisis unit, confirmed a report by news website Blick.ch at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox The evacuation flights, which must be approved by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA), will be carried out on Friday between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. using Air Zermatt helicopters. "There are many senior citizens among the stranded tourists, not all of whom are necessarily in a hurry to leave," said Bumann. This will reduce the number of necessary evacuations accordingly. The helicopters should take off from Saas-Fee and drop the tourists off in Stalden, just a ...