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CANAZEI — Helicopter crew Members and drones flew over the Italian Alps on Monday, looking for 14 people who went missing after the collapse of part of a mountain glacier, and killed at least seven of the disaster experts associated with rising temperatures.
Much of Italy was burned by heat waves in early summer, and scientists said climate change made it more difficult to predict glaciers that were previously stable.
The avalanche on Sunday happened in Marmolada. Marmolada is located over 3,300 meters, the highest peak of the Dolomites in the eastern Italian Alps, which straddles the region of Trent and Veneto.
Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi said disasters are related to environmental factors.
"Today Italy cries for these victims," Draghi said during his visit to meet the rescue team.
"But the government needs to think about what happened and take steps to make it unlikely or avoid it again," he adds. I did.
President Maurizio Fugatti of the Trent region said seven people were killed and two out of eight were seriously injured.
Three from Austrian and the Czech Republic were among the 14 unexplained.
"This is the first such accident in mountain history," said Gino Comelli, who helped coordinate rescue operations.
The peak was too unstable for rescuers to walk on, Comelli said, adding that the recent hot weather was the cause of the collapse.
Pope Francis said he was praying for the victims and their families.
"The tragedy we are experiencing in climate change should force us to urgently pursue new ways of respecting people and nature," he said on Twitter. ..
Due to rising average temperatures, the Marmolada Glacier, like many other glaciers around the world, has been steadily shrinking in recent decades.
"The collapse of the Marmolada Glacier is a natural disaster directly related to climate change," said Paul Christophersen, a professor of glaciology at the University of Cambridge.
"Highland glaciers like Marmolada are often steep and rely on low temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius for stability," he added. (Additional report by Emilio Parodi and Angelo Amante, written by Giulia Segreti and Keith Weir, edited by Janet Lawrence)
