Tragedy in the Dolomites: Six climbers killed by a glacier fall - 20 people missing

Created: 07/04/2022 10:04 am

By: Martina Lippl

Glacier fall in the Dolomites: tragedy on a popular route of the Marmolada Group.

© PIERRE TEYSSOT(afp

Huge chunks of ice have broken off a glacier in the Dolomites.

Six climbers were killed on a popular route.

The search for the missing continues.

Bolzano – Suddenly ice, snow and debris thundered down into the valley.

At least six climbers die.

20 people are still missing.

According to the latest findings, Germans are also involved in the accident.

The rescuers have little hope of finding more survivors among the masses of ice, snow and rock.

In the parking lot at the foot of the mountain, the cars were checked to find out if and how many people were still missing, the mountain rescue service SUEM Veneto tweeted.

18 people were evacuated from the summit of Punta Rocca on Sunday.

"The Marmolada is closed to the public."

Glacier fall in the Dolomites: Germans among the mountaineers

A massive glacier fracture occurred on the Marmolada in the northern Italian region of Trentino on Sunday.

After the fatal glacier fall in northern Italy, the Federal Foreign Office assumes that Germans are involved in the accident, reports the dpa news agency.

According to the current status, there are two people, said a spokeswoman on Monday.

The Foreign Office initially did not provide any further information.

The honorary consul in Bolzano and the German embassy in Rome are in constant contact with the Italian authorities, it said.

Extreme mountaineer Reinhold Messner: "We will see more often incidents like on the Marmolada"

Extreme mountaineer and environmentalist Reinhold Messner sees the accident as a consequence of climate change and global warming.

"These eat away at the glaciers," said the 77-year-old in an interview with the dpa news agency.

So-called ice towers - called seracs - then form on the edges of the glacier, "which can be as big as skyscrapers or rows of houses," explained Messner.

Incidents like those on the Marmolada "we will see more often", he predicted, because "today there are many more rock and ice falls than in the past".

Glacier fall in the Dolomites: emergency services report terrible scenes

And these can then have terrible consequences, like on Sunday on the massif on the border between the Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto regions.

The visibly shocked mountain rescuer Luigi Felicetti reported on the mission: "When we arrived on site, we were presented with an unbelievable picture.

There were blocks of ice and huge stones everywhere.”

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The Ansa news agency quoted investigators as saying that an "unimaginable bloodbath" took place on the mountain, after which "it will be difficult to determine the identity of the victims because the bodies were dismembered" by the chunks of ice and stone.