Glacier avalanche leaves seven known dead, 14 missing in Italy

Italian Filippo Bari posted this photo of himself with the glacier in the background around 20 minutes before the fatal avalanche. Image / Francesco Gonzo sindaco / Facebook

Thunderstorms hampered the search for more than a dozen hikers yesterday who remained unaccounted for a day after a huge chunk of an Alpine glacier in Italy broke off, sending an avalanche of ice, snow and rocks down the slope. Officials put the known death toll at seven.

"I hope the numbers stop here,'' said Veneto Governor Luca Zaia, whose region in northeast Italy borders the Dolomite mountain range including the Marmolada glacier. He spoke in the resort town of Canazei, where a morgue was set up in the ice rink.

Another regional leader, Maurizio Fugatti, said 14 people remained unaccounted for by Monday afternoon: 10 Italians, three from Czechia and one from Austria. Local officials later said that Austrian consular officials had made contact with the Austrian.

A view of the Punta Rocca glacier near Canazei, in the Italian Alps, a day after a huge chunk of the glacier broke loose, sending an avalanche of ice, snow, and rocks onto hikers. Photo / AP

"We were contacted by families because these people didn't return home,'" said Fugatti of the Trentino-Alto Adige Alpine region.

In the mountain's parking lot, four cars remained whose occupants hadn't been traced — two cars had license plates from Czechia; one vehicle was from Germany and the fourth was from Hungary.

At least three of the dead were Italians, authorities said. Italian news reports said one of the deceased was from Czechia, which is more widely known in English as the Czech Republic.

Filippo Bari sent a selfie with the Marmolada glacier in the background. Minutes later he would be dead.

One of the Italians was Filippo Bari, 28, who snapped a selfie with the Marmolada glacier in the background only minutes before the avalanche, his brother, Andrea, told state TV in Canazei where he came to identify the body.

Although an expert mountain hiker, his brother said his family always told him to be careful in the mountains, "above all in these temperatures.'' He said the selfie was sent only 20 minutes before the avalanche and that his brother, who had a partner and a 4-year-old son, was smiling. "He passed away doing what he loved."

A rescue helicopter hovers over the Punta Rocca glacier near Canazei, in the Italian Alps in northern Italy as it joins the search for missing hikers following an avalanche. Photo / AP

On Sunday, officials said nine people were injured, but on Monday told reporters in Canazei that eight were injured, including two in grave condition.

Zaia said the hospitalised included two Germans and a 40-year-old patient yet to be identified.

The avalanche came roaring down when dozens of hikers were on excursions, including some of them roped together.

Looking grim after meeting with families of some of the dead, Italian Premier Mario Draghi, demanded that action be taken so such a tragedy doesn't happen again.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi speaks during a press conference in Canazei, in the Italian Alps in northern Italy. Drones were being used to spot any more bodies on the mountainside. Photo / AP

"This is a drama that certainly has some unpredictability, and certainly depends on environmental deterioration and the climate situation,'' Draghi said, echoing several experts who said an avalanche triggered by a glacier's breakup couldn't be forecast.

Marmolada glacier has been shrinking for decades, and scientists at the government CNR research center have said it won't exist within 25-30 years.

"Today, Italy cries for the victims, all Italians embrace them with affection,'' Draghi said. "The government must reflect on what happened and take measures, so that what happened has a very low probability of happening again or being avoided entirely."

The detached portion of glacier was massive, estimated at 200 metres wide, 80 metres tall and 60 metres deep. Zaia likened the avalanche to an "apartment building (sized) block of ice with debris and Cyclopean masses of rock."

"I can't say anything else other than the facts, and the facts tell us that the high temperatures don't favour these situations," Zaia told reporters.

A rescue helicopter hovers over the Punta Rocca glacier near Canazei, in the Italian Alps in northern Italy on July 4, a day after a huge chunk of the glacier broke loose. Photo / via AP

Italy is in the grips of a weeks-long heat wave, and Alpine rescuers said that the temperature at the glacier's altitude last week topped 10C when usually it should hover around freezing at this time of year.

What exactly caused a pinnacle of the glacier to break off and thunder down the slope at a speed estimated by experts at around 300 kph, wasn't immediately known.

But high temperatures were widely cited as a factor.

Two Carabinieri officers show a journalist, left, the Punta Rocca glacier near Canazei, in the Italian Alps in northern Italy yesterday. Photo / AP

"The atmosphere and climate, especially below 3500 metres, is at a complete imbalance thanks to the 'new' climate that we've been registering, and unfortunately these events are probably destined to repeat themselves in the coming years," said Renato Colucci from the Institute of Polar Sciences in the state-run Council of National Research (CNR).

Jacopo Gabrieli, another glacier expert with CNR, told state television that the long heat wave, spanning May and June, was the hottest in northern Italy in that period for nearly 20 years — "absolutely an anomaly."

Operators of rustic shelters along the mountainside said temperatures at the 2000-metre level recently reached 24C - unheard of in a place where excursionists go in summer to keep cool.

The glacier, in the Marmolada range, is the largest in the Dolomite mountains in northeastern Italy. People ski on it in the winter. But the glacier has been rapidly melting away over the past decades, with much of its volume gone.

The Mediterranean basin, which includes southern European countries like Italy, has been identified by UN experts as a "climate change hot spot," likely to suffer heat waves and water shortages, among other consequences.

Pope Francis, who has made care of the planet a priority of his papacy, tweeted an invitation to pray for the avalanche victims and their families.

"The tragedies that we are experiencing with climate change must push us to urgently search for new ways that are respectful of people and nature," Francis wrote.

- AP