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Glacier break-off in the Dolomites
Photo: -- / dpa
They are looking for survivors, but hope is fading: after the serious glacier fall in the Dolomites with at least six deaths, the emergency services want to continue the search on the flank of Mount Marmolada on Monday.
But they have little hope of finding any more survivors among the masses of ice, snow and rock.
That said Walter Cainelli from the mountain rescue service in the northern Italian province of Trentino on Sunday evening.
A good dozen people are missing, according to the Ansa news agency.
In the parking lot at the foot of the mountain, 16 cars were counted whose owners have not yet been found.
It is unclear whether the vehicles belonged to dead or missing people, said the regional president of Trentino-Alto Adige, Maurizio Fugatti.
At least six people died in a massive glacier fall on Sunday.
The scene of the accident is the Marmolada, the highest mountain in the Dolomites.
»Ice Blocks and Huge Stones«
The helpers obviously saw terrible things.
Mountain rescuer Luigi Felicetti said: »When we arrived on site, we were presented with an incredible picture.
There were blocks of ice and huge stones everywhere.” The Ansa news agency quoted investigators as saying that an “unimaginable bloodbath” had taken place on the mountain.
The search and rescue work was interrupted on Sunday evening because there was a risk that more blocks of ice could go off.
The area around the glacier has been closed to the public.
Extreme mountaineer and environmentalist Reinhold Messner warned of more accidents of this kind in view of global warming. Because of the increased temperatures, glaciers are more unstable.
"Today there are a lot more rock and ice falls than there used to be."
There was initially no official information on the cause of the accident - however, there are many indications that the high temperatures of the past few days, weeks and months are likely to play a role.
According to media reports, a record value of ten degrees was measured on the summit of the mountain on Saturday.
'I've never seen anything like it on the Marmolada.
It wasn't a normal avalanche like in winter," said a mountain rescuer.
Italy registered much less precipitation than usual last winter, and many glaciers are now missing snow to protect them from the sun and the high mountains.
jpz/dpa
