Floods, stone theft scupper Swiss rock-throwingThu Aug 25,10:41 AM ET
ZURICH (Reuters) - A medieval-style festival of stone-throwing, wrestling and yodelling has been cancelled after floods swamped Switzerland and Swiss-French separatists stole the iconic rock traditionally hurled by competitors.
The "Unspunnenfest", an extravaganza of Swiss folk culture which only takes place roughly once a decade, had been pencilled in for the first weekend of September in the village of Unspunnen in the Bernese Alps.
But the floods and mudslides which have ravaged the area, sweeping away houses and cutting off towns, sounded the death knell on a contest already hampered by the theft of its symbolic centrepiece -- the "Unspunnenstein".
The stone, an 80-kg emblem of Swiss nationality, was stolen from display in a hotel in the city of Interlaken last weekend. Swiss media said French-speaking separatists who wish to secede from the German-speaking canton (state) of Berne claimed responsibility for the theft.
Despite its diminutive size and multilingual population, Switzerland is split by a cultural gulf between the Germanic majority and French minority.
Berne police said the thieves had replaced the stone with a plaster replica bearing the emblem of French-speaking Jura, the canton to which the separatist group want to belong.
"The stone has still not been found," Unspunnenfest spokesman Peter Wenger said. The Unspunnenstein was previously stolen by separatists in 1984.
A long wait may be in store for those keen to see the spectacle of burly Swiss men lining up to heave the Unspunnenstein above their heads, sprint forwards and hurl it through the air in a centuries-old show of strength.
"Last time the stone disappeared we didn't find it for 16 years," Wenger said. The Unspunnenfest is nevertheless rescheduled for September 2006.
Unspunnenfest organisers had been prepared to use a replica stone this year, but the weather caused transport chaos across the country as well as the region, making it almost impossible for people to reach the village.
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