On Sunday afternoon, most of the glaciers in the Alps collapsed, barking on the Italian hillside, and ice, snow, and rocks hit hikers on a popular trail at the top, killing at least six people. Did. Eight people were injured, officials said.
There could be about 10 missing people, civil protection official Gianpaolo Bottacin said in the online version of the Italian dailyCorriere dellaSera. It has been reported. However, Bottasin later said it was still impossible to provide state television with a solid number.
The glaciers of the Marmolada Mountains are the largest in the Dolomites Mountains in northeastern Italy, where people ski in the winter. However, in recent years, glaciers have melted rapidly.
Experts at the Italian State CNR Research Center, where the Institute for Polar Sciences is located, say glaciers will disappear in the next 25-30 years, and most of them are already gone. The Mediterranean coast, shared by Southern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, has been identified by UN experts as a "climate change hotspot" and can be affected by heat waves and water scarcity.
By Sunday evening, authorities said they were still working to find out how many hikers were in the area when the ice avalanche struck, killing and injuring the National Alpine Rescue Team. Walter Milano, the representative of the group, said.
The rescuer checked the parking lot license plate to determine how many people were not explained. This process can take several hours, Milan told The Associated Press on the phone.
"We saw the dead (people), huge ice cubes, and rock masses," exhausted rescuer Luigi Felissetti told Italian state television.
The nationality and age of the dead were not immediately known, and two of the eight survivors in the hospital were in serious condition, according to authorities.
The fast-moving avalanche "falls down with a roaring sound from afar," according to local online media site ildolomiti.it. Prior to
, the National Alpine and Cave Rescue Team tweeted that the search for the area at the summit of Marmolada involved at least five helicopters and included rescue dogs.
Temporarily, Walter Kainelli told state television that the search for victims and missing persons was stopped while rescuers were assessing the risk of many glaciers collapsing. .. The interview took place after he carried out a rescue mission with the search dog.
The rescuer said the ice block continued to crumble. In the evening, it began to rain lightly.
A SUEM dispatch service based in the nearby Veneto area said 18 people above the ice-hit area would be evacuated by the Alpine rescue team.
However, Milan said he might be able to get off some of the slopes himself, including using the peak cable car.
According to SUEM, the avalanche consisted of "snow, ice, and rocks pouring down." The detached part is known as Serak, or the apex of ice.
At a height of about 3,300 meters (about 11,000 feet), Marmolada is the highest peak in the eastern Dolomites and offers spectacular views of other Alpine peaks.
The Alpine Rescue Service tweeted that the segment was interrupted "usually along the itinerary used to reach its peak" near Puntarokka (Rockpoint).
It was not immediately clear what caused the ice to collapse and rush down the slopes of the mountaintop. However, the heat wave that hit Italy after late June could be a factor.
"Recent temperatures have clearly affected the partial collapse of the glacier," President Maurizio Fugatti of Trent, who borders Marmolada, told Sky TG24 news.
However, Milan emphasized that the high fever that abnormally surged above 10 C (50 F) at the recent peak of Marmolada was the only possible cause of Sunday's tragedy.
"There are so many factors that could be involved," Milan said. Avalanches are generally unpredictable, and the effects of heat on glaciers are "more unpredictable," he said.
According to the rescue team, the injured were taken to several hospitals in the Trentino Alto Adige and Veneto areas.