A large chunk of an Alpine glacier broke off Sunday afternoon and slid down a mountainside in Italy, sending ice, snow and rocks tumbling over hikers on a popular summit trail, killing at least six and injuring eight, authorities said.
It could not immediately be determined how many hikers were in the area or whether there were any missing, said Walter Milan, a spokesman for the national alpine rescue corps, which provided the number of dead and injured.
Rescuers were checking license plates in the parking lot as part of a search to determine how many people might be missing, a process that could take hours, Millan said by phone.
“We saw dead (people) and huge pieces of ice, rocks,” exhausted rescuer Luigi Felicetti told Italian state television.
The nationalities or ages of the dead were not immediately available, Milan said. Of the eight hospitalized survivors, two were in serious condition, emergency services said.
This image released on Sunday by Italy’s National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps shows the glacier in the Italian Alps. Rescuers say a large chunk of the glacier has broken off, sending snow and rocks into the hikers. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico/The Associated Press)
The fast-moving avalanche “came down with a roar that could be heard for a long distance,” local online media site ildolomiti.it reported.
Earlier, the National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps tweeted that the search of the affected area on Mount Marmolada included at least five helicopters and rescue dogs.
But Millan said some of the slope may be able to get down on their own, including by using the gondola at the top.
The injured were airlifted to several hospitals in the Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto regions, according to rescue services.
The SUEM dispatch office, which is based in the nearby Veneto region, said the avalanche consisted of “snow, ice and rock dumping”. The detached section is known as a serac or ice peak.
SUEM said 18 people who were above the area where the ice hit would be evacuated by the Alpine Rescue Corps.
“The heat is unusual”
Marmolada, rising to around 3,300 meters, is the highest peak in the eastern Dolomites.
The Alpine Rescue Service said in a tweet that the segment broke off near Punta Roca (Rock Point), “on the route normally used to reach the summit”.
Rescue teams used helicopters and dogs to search for hikers trapped by the glacier’s collapse on Sunday. This screenshot, taken from footage released by rescuers, shows a view of the glacier. (Alpine Mountain Rescue/Reuters)
“The temperatures during these days have obviously influenced” the partial collapse of the glacier, Maurizio Fugatti, president of Trento province, which borders Marmolada, told Sky TG24 news.
But Milan stressed that the high temperature, which has soared unusually above 10C on top of Marmolada in recent days, was only one possible factor in Sunday’s tragedy.
“There are so many factors that can be involved,” Millan said. Avalanches are generally unpredictable, he said, and the effect of heat on the glacier “is even more unpredictable.”
In separate comments on Italian state television, Milan called the recent temperatures “extreme heat” for the peak. “It’s obviously something abnormal.
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