Italy: Rescuers search for survivors of glacier collapse

Rescuers using thermal drones in their search for survivors following a glacier collapse in Italy's Dolomite mountains on Monday, recovered a seventh victim.

So far, seven people have been confirmed dead after a glacier ruptured and slid down the mountainside, off the highest mountain in the Italian Dolomites on Sunday.

Nine injured survivors were found and flown by helicopter to hospitals in northeastern Italy.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Monday that the disaster was the result of environmental harm and climate change.

He was speaking from Canazei, a town in the Dolomites that has been serving as a base for rescuers. Draghi said the government "needs to think about what has happened and take measures."

"Italy is weeping for its victims," Draghi said. He met the families of victims there too.

It is unclear how many people might have been hiking on the Marmolada peak and are unaccounted for. Sixteen cars remained unclaimed in the area's parking lot as of Monday morning. 

Search for missing hikers continue

The avalanche was compared to an "apartment building [-sized] block of ice with debris and Cyclopean masses of rock" by Italian governor Luca Zaia, whose Veneto region borders the Marmolada area, in northeastern Italy.

Trento Prosecutor Sandro Raimondi said that 17 hikers were believed to be missing. The number was later brought down after state TV reported from the scene that authorities managed to track down some of those originally feared missing.

However, authorities also warned that the chances of surviving in such conditions for a long period of time were very bleak. 

The possibility of finding more survivors "are slim to nothing," the region's Alpine Rescue Service head Giorgio Gajer told AGI news agency.

Two Germans injured in the accident

Four victims were identified on Monday: three of them Italian, two Alpine guides, and another from the Czech Republic, news agency AGI cited rescuers in saying.

The German Foreign Ministry told the dpa news agency that it was working on the assumption that two Germans were injured in the accident. Health authorities in Belluno said later on Monday that two rescued Germans were being treated in hospital, a 67-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman.   

Record-high temperature at summit

What caused the pinnacle of the glacier to break off and thunder down the slope was not immediately known. But a heat wave bringing unusually high temperatures for the start of summer at high altitude in the Alps was being cited as a very likely factor.

The disaster struck one day after a record-high temperature of 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) was recorded at the summit of Italy's largest glacier. 

According to Massimo Frezzotti, a science professor at Roma Tre University, the collapse was caused by unusually warm weather linked to global warming, with precipitation down 40% to 50% during a dry winter.

Jacopo Gabrieli — a polar sciences researcher at Italy's state-run National Research Council — noted that the long heat wave, spanning May and June, was the hottest in northern Italy in that period for nearly 20 years.

"The current conditions of the glacier correspond to mid-August, not early July," Gabrieli said.

The glacier, in the Marmolada range, is the largest in the Dolomite mountains in northeastern Italy. It has been rapidly melting away over the past decades, with much of its volume gone. Experts at the research council estimated a couple of years ago that the glacier was likely to disappear within 25 to 30 years.

rm, dh/msh (AP, dpa, AFP, Reuters)