GENEVA, Switzerland — The search for a missing 64-year-old man was suspended Thursday because of unsafe conditions after a huge mass of rock and ice from a glacier crashed down a Swiss mountainside the day before.

The landslide sent plumes of dust skyward and coated with mud nearly all of an Alpine village that authorities had evacuated earlier this month as a precaution. State Councilor Stéphane Ganzer told Radio Télévision Suisse that 90% of the village was destroyed.

The Cantonal Police of Valais said that a search and rescue operation was temporarily suspended Thursday afternoon because of falling debris.

The regional government said in a statement that a large chunk of the Birch Glacier above the village had broken off, causing the landslide, which also buried the nearby Lonza Ri

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