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Glacier collapses in Italian Alps, six dead: rescuersThe disaster struck one day after a record-high temperature of 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded at the glacier's summit.
Issued on: 03/07/2022
Rome (AFP) – An avalanche sparked by the collapse of the largest glacier in the Italian Alps killed at least six people and injured eight others on Sunday, an emergency services spokeswoman said.
The glacier collapsed on the mountain of Marmolada, the highest in the Italian Dolomites, near the hamlet of Punta Rocca, the route normally taken to reach its summit.
The disaster struck one day after a record-high temperature of 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded at the glacier's summit.
"An avalanche of snow, ice and rock hit an access path at a time when there were several roped parties, some of whom were swept away," emergency services spokeswoman Michela Canova told AFP.
She said six people had been confirmed dead and eight were injured.
Two of the injured were taken to hospital in Belluno, another in a more serious condition was taken to Treviso and five to Trento, she said.
"The total number of climbers involved is not yet known," Canova added.
She did not specify the nationalities of the victims.
Helicopters were scrambled to take part in the rescue operation and to monitor the situation from the air.
Rescuers in the nearby Veneto region of northeast Italy said they had deployed all their Alpine teams, including sniffer dog
Further collapses feared
Images filmed from a refuge close to the incident show a mix of snow and rock hurtling down the mountain's slopes and causing a thunderous noise.
Other footage shot by tourists on their mobile phones showed the greyish avalanche sweep away everything in its path.
Experts quoted by the Corriere della Sera daily said they feared further collapses of ice.
Renato Colucci, a glacier specialist quoted by the Italian agency AGI, added that the phenomenon was "bound to repeat itself", because "for weeks the temperatures at altitude in the Alps have been well beyond normal values".
The Marmolada glacier is the largest in the Dolomites mountain range, which is part of the Italian Alps and situated on the northern face of Marmolada.
The glacier in the autonomous Italian province of Trento feeds the Avisio river and overlooks Lake Fedaia.
According to a March report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), melting ice and snow is one of 10 major threats caused by global warming, disrupting ecosystems and infrastructure.
The IPCC has said glaciers in Scandinavia, central Europe and the Caucasus could lose between 60 and 80 percent of their mass by the end of the century.
The traditional way of life of people such as the Sami in Finland's Lapland, who raise reindeer, has already been affected.
Thawing permafrost is also hampering economic activity in Canada and Russia.
© 2022 AFP
Alpine glacier chunk detaches, killing at least 6 hikers
By FRANCES D'EMILIO
This image released on Sunday, July 3, 2022, by the Italian National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps shows the glacier in Italy's Alps near Trento a large chunk of which has broken loose, killing at least six hikers and injuring eight others. Alpine rescue service officials, which provided that toll Sunday evening, said it could take hours to determine if any hikers might be missing. The National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps tweeted that the search of the involved area of Marmolada peak involved at least five helicopters and rescue dogs. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico via AP)
ROME (AP) — A large chunk of an Alpine glacier broke loose Sunday and roared down a mountain in Italy, sending ice, snow and rock slamming into hikers on a popular trail on the peak and killing at least six and injuring nine, authorities said, warning that the toll might climb.
A local Civil Protection official, Gianpaolo Bottacin, was quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA as providing the toll, but stressing that the situation was “evolving” and that there could be perhaps 15 people missing.
In late evening, the National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps tweeted a phone number to call for family or friends in case of “failure to return from possible excursions” to the glacier.
Rescuers were checking license plates in the parking lot as part of checks to determine how many people might be unaccounted for, a process that could take hours, Corps spokesman Walter Milan told The Associated Press by telephone.
The glacier, in the Marmolada range, is the largest in the Dolomite mountains in northeastern Italy and people ski there in the winter. But the glacier has been rapidly melting away in recent years.
Experts at Italy’s state-run CNR research center, which has a polar sciences institute, says the glacier won’t exist anymore in the next 25-30 years and much of its volume is already gone.
The Mediterranean basin, shared by southern Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa, has been identified by U.N. experts as a “climate change hot spot,” likely to suffer heat waves and water shortages, among other consequences.
“We saw dead (people) and enormous chunks of ice, rock,″ exhausted-looking rescuer Luigi Felicetti told Italian state TV.
Nationalities or ages of the dead weren’t immediately available, Milan said.
Of the hospitalized survivors, two were in grave condition, authorities said.
This image released on Sunday, July 3, 2022, by the Italian National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps shows the glacier in Italy's Alps near Trento a large chunk of which has broken loose, killing at least six hikers and injuring eight others. Alpine rescue service officials, which provided that toll Sunday evening, said it could take hours to determine if any hikers might be missing. The National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps tweeted that the search of the involved area of Marmolada peak involved at least five helicopters and rescue dogs. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico via AP)
By FRANCES D'EMILIO
This image released on Sunday, July 3, 2022, by the Italian National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps shows the glacier in Italy's Alps near Trento a large chunk of which has broken loose, killing at least six hikers and injuring eight others. Alpine rescue service officials, which provided that toll Sunday evening, said it could take hours to determine if any hikers might be missing. The National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps tweeted that the search of the involved area of Marmolada peak involved at least five helicopters and rescue dogs. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico via AP)
ROME (AP) — A large chunk of an Alpine glacier broke loose Sunday and roared down a mountain in Italy, sending ice, snow and rock slamming into hikers on a popular trail on the peak and killing at least six and injuring nine, authorities said, warning that the toll might climb.
A local Civil Protection official, Gianpaolo Bottacin, was quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA as providing the toll, but stressing that the situation was “evolving” and that there could be perhaps 15 people missing.
In late evening, the National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps tweeted a phone number to call for family or friends in case of “failure to return from possible excursions” to the glacier.
Rescuers were checking license plates in the parking lot as part of checks to determine how many people might be unaccounted for, a process that could take hours, Corps spokesman Walter Milan told The Associated Press by telephone.
The glacier, in the Marmolada range, is the largest in the Dolomite mountains in northeastern Italy and people ski there in the winter. But the glacier has been rapidly melting away in recent years.
Experts at Italy’s state-run CNR research center, which has a polar sciences institute, says the glacier won’t exist anymore in the next 25-30 years and much of its volume is already gone.
The Mediterranean basin, shared by southern Europe, the Middle East and northern Africa, has been identified by U.N. experts as a “climate change hot spot,” likely to suffer heat waves and water shortages, among other consequences.
“We saw dead (people) and enormous chunks of ice, rock,″ exhausted-looking rescuer Luigi Felicetti told Italian state TV.
Nationalities or ages of the dead weren’t immediately available, Milan said.
Of the hospitalized survivors, two were in grave condition, authorities said.
This image released on Sunday, July 3, 2022, by the Italian National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps shows the glacier in Italy's Alps near Trento a large chunk of which has broken loose, killing at least six hikers and injuring eight others. Alpine rescue service officials, which provided that toll Sunday evening, said it could take hours to determine if any hikers might be missing. The National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps tweeted that the search of the involved area of Marmolada peak involved at least five helicopters and rescue dogs. (Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico via AP)
The fast-moving avalanche “came down with a roar the could be heard at great distance,″ local online media site ildolomiti.it said.
Temporarily, the search by helicopter and dogs for any more victims or missing was halted for the night while rescuers evaluated the risk that more of the glacier could break off, Walter Cainelli, after conducting a rescue mission with a search dog, told state television.
Rescuers said blocks of ice were continuing to tumble down. In early evening, a light rain began to fall.
The SUEM dispatch service, which is based in the nearby Veneto region, said 18 people who were above the area where the ice struck would be evacuated by the Alpine rescue corps.
Some of those making the trek in the area where the avalanche barreled through were tied together by rope, according to local emergency services.
But Milan said some of the hikers might be able to get down by themselves, including by using the peak’s cable car.
SUEM said the avalanche consisted of a “pouring down of snow, ice and rock.” The detached section is know as a serac, or pinnacle of ice.
Dubbed the “queen of the Dolomites,” Marmolada rises about 3,300 meters (about 11,000 feet) and is the highest of the 18 peaks in that eastern range of the Italian Alps, offering spectacular views of other Alpine peaks.
The Alpine rescue service said in a tweet that the segment broke off near Punta Rocca (Rock Point), “along the itinerary normally used to reach the peak.”
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the section of ice to break away and rush down the peak’s slope. But the intense heat wave gripping Italy since late June loomed as a possible factor.
“The temperatures of these days clearly had influence” on the glacier’s partial collapse, Maurizio Fugatti, the president of Trento Province, which borders Marmolada, told Sky TG24 news.
But Milan stressed that high heat, which soared unusually above 10 C (50 F) on Marmolada’s peak in recent days, was only one possible factor in Sunday’s tragedy.
“There are so many factors that could be involved,″ Milan said. Avalanches in general aren’t predictable, he said, and heat’s influence on a glacier “is even more impossible to predict.”
In separate comments to Italian state television, Milan called the recent temperatures “extreme heat” for the peak. “Clearly it’s something abnormal.”
The injured were flown to several hospitals in the regions of Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto, according to rescue services.
As in other cases of disasters amid nature in Italy, prosecutors opened an investigation to see if there was any indication of possible wrongdoing linked to the avalanche.
Temporarily, the search by helicopter and dogs for any more victims or missing was halted for the night while rescuers evaluated the risk that more of the glacier could break off, Walter Cainelli, after conducting a rescue mission with a search dog, told state television.
Rescuers said blocks of ice were continuing to tumble down. In early evening, a light rain began to fall.
The SUEM dispatch service, which is based in the nearby Veneto region, said 18 people who were above the area where the ice struck would be evacuated by the Alpine rescue corps.
Some of those making the trek in the area where the avalanche barreled through were tied together by rope, according to local emergency services.
But Milan said some of the hikers might be able to get down by themselves, including by using the peak’s cable car.
SUEM said the avalanche consisted of a “pouring down of snow, ice and rock.” The detached section is know as a serac, or pinnacle of ice.
Dubbed the “queen of the Dolomites,” Marmolada rises about 3,300 meters (about 11,000 feet) and is the highest of the 18 peaks in that eastern range of the Italian Alps, offering spectacular views of other Alpine peaks.
The Alpine rescue service said in a tweet that the segment broke off near Punta Rocca (Rock Point), “along the itinerary normally used to reach the peak.”
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the section of ice to break away and rush down the peak’s slope. But the intense heat wave gripping Italy since late June loomed as a possible factor.
This image released on Sunday, July 3, 2022, by the Italian National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps shows the rescue operations on the glacier in Italy's Alps near Trento a large chunk of which has broken loose, killing at least six hikers and injuring eight others. Alpine rescue service officials, which provided that toll Sunday evening, said it could take hours to determine if any hikers might be missing. The National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps tweeted that the search of the involved area of Marmolada peak involved at least five helicopters and rescue dogs.
(Corpo Nazionale Soccorso Alpino e Speleologico via AP)
“The temperatures of these days clearly had influence” on the glacier’s partial collapse, Maurizio Fugatti, the president of Trento Province, which borders Marmolada, told Sky TG24 news.
But Milan stressed that high heat, which soared unusually above 10 C (50 F) on Marmolada’s peak in recent days, was only one possible factor in Sunday’s tragedy.
“There are so many factors that could be involved,″ Milan said. Avalanches in general aren’t predictable, he said, and heat’s influence on a glacier “is even more impossible to predict.”
In separate comments to Italian state television, Milan called the recent temperatures “extreme heat” for the peak. “Clearly it’s something abnormal.”
The injured were flown to several hospitals in the regions of Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto, according to rescue services.
As in other cases of disasters amid nature in Italy, prosecutors opened an investigation to see if there was any indication of possible wrongdoing linked to the avalanche.
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