GENEVA - Chunks of Switzerland's mountains and glaciers started to break away under the intense summer heat on Tuesday, forcing authorities to evacuate climbers and hikers in the Swiss Alps.

Helicopters ferried about 70 people from one of Switzerland's top landmarks, the Matterhorn, in southern Switzerland after a rock face crumbled at 3,400 metres (11,220 feet). Local rescue services in Zermatt said no one was injured by the falling rubble, but the evacuation was carried out as a precaution because unusually hot weather at high altitude was melting ice that normally binds the rock together.

A portion of a glacier near the Alpine resort of Grindelwald also broke away and fell into a river. The chunk of ice caused large waves and police in the canton of Bern warned people several miles downstream to stay away from the bed of the Luetschine river, the Swiss news agency ATS reported.

Daytime temperatures in most of Switzerland have stayed above 30°C (86°F) for most of the past five weeks and June was the hottest month on record since weather observations began in 1864.

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