Rescue workers warned Monday that hope of finding survivors is fading after the avalanche It was erupted by an Italian glacier During the heat wave, at least seven people were killed.
Authorities said they do not know how many climbers were injured when the glacier broke on Sunday at Marmolada, the highest mountain in the Italian Dolomites. Its collapse caused ice and rocks to roll down the slope at 185 miles per hour, according to Trento County Chief Maurizio Fogatti.
On Monday, rescuers armed with thermal drones searched for body heat from potential survivors trapped in the ice. The chances of finding additional survivors now are “little or none” because it has likely been a long time since the deadly avalanche, Giorgio Jäger, head of the regional Alpine Rescue Service, said in comments to the AGI news agency.
Rescuer Gino Comelli, who spoke to the port after six bodies were recovered from the mountain, said the bodies found were “torn apart” as a result of the tragedy.
The death toll rose as search and rescue missions continued in Marmolada on Monday. Confirm my fugue Seven dead By late afternoon, according to AGI, eight people were injured and at least 14 others remained missing. Two of the wounded were reportedly found in critical condition, and only three of the dead were immediately identified. It is not yet clear exactly how many people were caught in the avalanche Missing Persons Reports Keep flowing throughout the day.
The disaster occurred one day after a record temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded at the summit of the glacier, the largest in the Italian Alps.
Experts said the glacier is getting weaker due to decades of global warming.
Alpine Rescue spokeswoman Michela Canova told AFP that “a torrent of snow, ice and rocks” hit an access corridor at a time when several tight parties were “swept away.”
Giovanni Mereghetti/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
A Trento County spokesperson said reports of the missing were still standing.
Corriere della Sera newspaper quoted Trento public prosecutor Sandro Raimondi as saying he feared the death toll “could double, if not triple” based on the number of cars left unattended in a car park near the mountain.
But Canova urged caution, saying the total number of climbers participating “is not yet known”. At that time, eight people with injuries were reported to have been cured.
Bodies removed from ice and rocks were taken to the village of Canazei, where Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi was taken. I travelled To talk about an avalanche on Monday. Helicopters and sniffer dogs were called off as night fell amid fears the glacier might still be unstable.
“It is difficult for the rescuers in a dangerous situation,” Giovanni Bernard, mayor of Canazei, told AFP.
Avalanche images, filmed from a nearby shelter, show snow and rocks falling on the slopes of the mountain.
“It’s a miracle that we’re alive,” Stefano Dal Moro, an engineer who was hiking with his Israeli partner, told Corriere della Sera newspaper. “There was a dull noise, then this sea of ice descended. There’s no point in running, you can just pray that it doesn’t come your way. We crouched on the ground and hugged each other tightly as the ice passed by.”
Massimo Frisotti, a science professor at Rome Tri University, told AFP that the avalanche was caused by unusually warm weather linked to global warming, with precipitation dropping 40-50% during the dry winter.
“The glacier’s current conditions correspond to mid-August, not early July,” he said.
Glacier specialist Renato Colucci told AGI the phenomenon “must be repeated”, because “for weeks the temperatures at alpine altitudes have been well above normal values”.
He added that recent warm temperatures produced a large amount of water from melting glaciers that had accumulated at the bottom of the ice mass and caused it to collapse.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Trento has opened an investigation to determine the causes of the tragedy.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said glaciers in Scandinavia, Central Europe and the Caucasus could lose between 60 and 80% of their mass by the end of the century.
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