Falling ice kills tourists
The Canadian Press – July 3, 2022 / 8:11 am | History: 373996
Photo: Google Maps
A large chunk of the Alpine glacier broke off Sunday afternoon and slid down the mountainside, crashing into more than a dozen hikers on a popular summit trail. At least four people were killed, Italian state television said, and seven others were injured.
State broadcaster RAI did not cite a source for its report on the deaths. But the National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps earlier tweeted that the search of the Marmolada area included at least five helicopters and rescue dogs. Separately, emergency dispatchers in northeastern Italy tweeted that about 15 tourists were believed to be in the affected area.
The segment that has broken off is known as a serac or tip of a glacier.
Marmolada, rising to around 3,300 meters, is the highest peak in the eastern Dolomites.
“A rock breakaway caused a crevasse to open in the glacier, leaving approximately 15 people trapped,” emergency dispatchers tweeted.
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”.
It was not immediately clear what caused the chunk of ice to break off and hurtle down the summit slope, but the intense heat wave that has gripped Italy since late June may have been a factor, Walter Milan, a spokesman for the Alpine Rescue Service, told the state broadcaster RAI.
“The heat is unusual,” Milan said, noting that temperatures in recent days on the summit have exceeded 10 C. “This is extraordinary heat” for the summit, Milan said. “It’s clearly something out of the ordinary.”
The injured, including one in critical condition, were taken to several hospitals in the Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto regions, according to rescue services.
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