Fifteen hikers still missing after a deadly Italian glacier avalanche

On Monday, a thunderstorm collapsed a huge mass of alpine glaciers inItaly, causing more than 12 people to remain unexplained for a day after an avalanche. The search for hikers was interrupted. , Snow and rocks go down the slope. Italy's state television said another body had been recovered, increasing the known death to seven.

On Sunday afternoon, dozens of hikers were injured when an avalanche was unleashed from the Marmolada Glacier during an excursion.

Trent's prosecutor Sandro Raimondi was initially believed to be missing 17 hikers, the Italian news agency La Presse reported. But then RAI state television reported from the scene that the unexplained number had dropped to 15 after authorities were able to track some of the people fearing missing.

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The separated ice blocks are huge, estimated to be 200 meters wide (yards), 80 meters high and 60 meters deep. Governor Lucazaia, who borders the Marmolada region in the Veneto region of northeastern Italy, likened the avalanche to "an ice block in an apartment building (size) with debris and cyclopean rock masses." It says nothing but the facts, and the facts tell us that high temperatures don't like these situations, "Zia told reporters.

Italy is on the verge of a heat wave for several weeks, and Alpine rescue teams said last week the glacier altitude exceeded 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Celsius). ..

The ice skating rink in the town of Dolomite Mountain Resort in Kanazei served as a temporary morgue to identify the dead.

By Monday afternoon, at least four bodies were identified that had been brought to the ice rink.

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RAI said the three identified were Italians, including an experienced Alpine guide. .. The other was a hiker, whose relatives said he sent a selfie from the slope just before the avalanche barreled down.

One of the dead was from the Czech Republic, RAI said.

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According to media reports, the people at risk of missing include Italians, three Romanians, one French national, one Austrian, and four Czechs.

Raimondi reportedly stated that two of the injured were German. Zaia told reporters that one of the Germans was a 65-year-old man. Of the patients who were seriously injured, so far it was not possible to identify them.

Drones were used to look for what was missing and to check for safety.

16 cars remained unclaimed in the parking lot in the area, and authorities attempted to track residents through license plates. The number of cars that may have been owned by the victims or injured already identified was unknown, all of which were taken to the hospital by helicopter on Sunday.

What caused the glacier's apex to smash the slopes at a speed estimated by experts at 300 km / h and thunder? I didn't know right away.

However, high temperature was widely cited as a possible factor.

Polar science researcher at the Italian State CNR Research Center said the long heat wave from May to June was the hottest in northern Italy for almost 20 years. I did.

"It's absolutely unusual," Gabrielli said in an interview on Italian state television on Monday. Like other experts, he said it was impossible to predict when or when Seraku (the peak from the glacier overhang) would break, as it did on Sunday.

The operator of a rustic shelter along the hillside said that temperatures at the level of 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) have recently reached 24 ° C (75 ° F).

The glaciers of the Marmolada Mountains are the largest in the Dolomites Mountains in northeastern Italy. People ski with it in winter. However, glaciers have melted rapidly over the last few decades, much of which has disappeared. Experts at the Italian State CNR Research Center, where the Institute for Polar Sciences is located, estimated a few years ago that glaciers would disappear within 25-30 years.

The Mediterranean coastal region, including Southern European countries such as Italy, has been identified by UN experts as a “climate change hotspot” that is likely to be affected by heat waves and water scarcity.

Pope Francis, who made the care of the planet a priority for his Pope, tweeted an invitation to pray for the avalanche victims and their families. "The tragedy we are experiencing in climate change requires urgent search for new ways to respect people and nature," writes Francis.

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