View of the Marmolada Glacier, the highest peak in the Dolomites. This is where the accident happened (archive image) Photo: picture alliance / imageBROKER
By René Garzke
In a massive glacier break in northern Italy, several mountaineers were hit by ice, snow and rock masses. At least six of them died!
This was announced by the rescue control center of the Veneto region on Sunday. Initially there was talk of five fatalities, later their number increased. Another eight people were injured. This is a “preliminary count”, emphasized the spokeswoman for the rescue services. We are looking for more people.
Nothing was initially known about the nationality of the victims. The rescue workers were on site with five helicopters and several dog squadrons.
A large chunk of glacier had detached itself from the Marmolada mountain massif and had fallen down into the valley. The normal ascent route to the 3343 meter high mountain, on which several rope teams were currently located, was also hit. Two of them were hit.
The rescuers flew a seriously injured person to a hospital in Treviso. Two other injured came to the Belluno hospital, five to Trento.
Search and rescue workers had to exercise extreme caution because of the risk that more ice and rockfalls could follow. According to the information, 18 people were above the broken-off point and were waiting to be rescued.
“We heard a loud noise, typical of a landslide,” said an eyewitness to the Ansa news agency. “After that, we saw an avalanche of snow and ice fall towards the valley at high speed and we knew something bad had happened.”
