Six people have died and at least 15 people are missing after the detachment of a part of the Marmolada glacier, in the Dolomites (Italian Alps) in a tragedy for all "unimaginable".
The tragedy occurred when a huge serac, as these parts of the glacier are called, about 300 meters wide, broke off and produced an avalanche of ice and stones that devastated everything in its path in this area of the Alps between the Trentino and Veneto regions.
According to sources from the Alpine Rescue team, which evacuated eighteen people from the area and delimited the entire glacier area due to the risk of new landslides, at least 15 people are still missing, although checks are still being carried out to determine the exact number.
During the afternoon, five helicopters with avalanche detection systems and canine units were used in search of the missing, in any case, they add, "survivors are unlikely"but the tasks will continue tomorrow.
In the area, a record temperature of 10.3 degrees has been recorded today, while the minimum was above 5 degrees last night.
The detachment occurred in the Punta Rocca area, along the ascent route of the normal route, and dragged two groups of mountaineers, Italians and foreigners, and their guides, although the nationality of the victims has not yet been communicated. .
There were also eight injuries, one of them seriously, who were only saved because they were far from the area of the collapse, hit by the movement of air and some stones.
One of the members of the Salvamento Alpino Luigi Felicetti explained to the media: When we arrived we found ourselves in front of a terrible scenario. There were huge blocks of ice and rock everywhere, we started looking and found the first victims.”
According to Felicetti, the mountaineers are not to blame because all "they were all with ropes and crampons and they were very well equipped, they were so unlucky”.
The injured were taken to hospitals in Belluno, Treviso and Trento, while the bodies of the victims were taken to the Canazei sports palace, a town located a few kilometers from the area, and a team of psychologists has been activated to assist the relatives of the victims, who have not yet been identified.
"It is such a carnage that we will hardly be able to identify the victims, because the bodies have been dismembered"the researchers admit, for this reason, it is likely that DNA tests will be necessary.
The witnesses explained that first there was a deafening roar and then a kind of avalanche of snow, ice and rock that destroyed everything and they assure that nothing like this had ever happened in what they call "the queen of the dolomites".
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi expresses his condolences "to the families of the victims and to all those injured" and is personally following the development of the rescue operations, informed by the Head of the Civil Protection Department, Fabrizio Curcio.
The Trento prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for the moment against, for the moment, unknown persons and the prosecutors Sandro Raimondi and Antonella Nazzaro affirmed that it is "of an unimaginable disaster".
