A huge mass of rock slid down a mountainside above a Swiss village Brienz that was evacuated (撤离) last month, stopping just short of the settlement, relieved local officials said Friday. 

Brienz is a small village in the mountains of Switzerland. For hundreds of years, the mountain rocks above the village have appeared as if it might fall on the village at any moment. 

It didn't just look that way. The mountain was actually moving. Research indicates that since the 1920s, the mountain has been shifting a little over an inch a year. But the movement increased about 20 years ago. Since then, the mountain's rocks have been moving about a yard every year.

In May, the government told the people of Brienz to evacuate. They warned that rock and dirt were expected to slide off the mountain, and it could happen in as little as a week. Last Thursday night, it did happen. It completely covered the road and left a pile of rubble (碎石) as high as a four-story building. But somehow, it missed the village by a "hair".

The building closest to the mountain is the village school. The rubble stopped just a few yards from the school. But villagers are still worried about their church, St. Calixtus, which is over 500 years old. Last Friday, a helicopter flew over the village to check the area. The system that's used to keep an eye on the mountain's movements was damaged in the rockslide. Experts have been working day and night to rebuild it. The local government won't have enough information to decide when the villagers can go back to Brienz until the system is repaired.

According to scientists, it was climate change that made some other recent landslides in Europe happen. But they say the rockslide that threatened Brienz was not caused by it. In fact, nature has long eaten away the rock in the region, causing the rockslide.