By Frances d'Emilio
Associated Press
At least six people died, nine were injured and 17 people are still missing due to the partial calving of a glacier in the Dolomites, in the Italian Alps, which has been melting for years, authorities reported Monday.
An avalanche of ice, snow and large rocks that descended at almost 200 miles per hour (300 kilometers per hour) surprised hikers who were on the slope of the mountain that crowns the Marmolada glacier, about 3,300 meters high (nearly 11,000 feet).
The first investigations suggest that the high temperatures in Italy, including this mountainous area located in the north of the country, have aggravated the melting of the glacier.
Image of the Marmolada glacier, in the Italian Alps, which partially broke off on July 3, 2022. Autonomous Province of Trento via AP
Trento province prosecutor Sandro Raimondi announced that some 17 hikers remain missing, according to the Italian news agency LaPresse.
The governor of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, explained that some of the hikers who were in the affected area were tied with ropes while climbing one of the walls of the glacier.
For now, the nationalities of the deceased have not been revealed.
Emergency crews said conditions on the glacier's slopes were still too unstable to send teams of people and dogs to dig through tons of debris or lower the bodies of victims.
The deceased will be taken to an ice skating rink in the Dolomite mountain resort town of Canazei for identification.
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Authorities use drones to search against the clock for possible survivors.
The operation also focuses on locating the occupants of the at least 16 vehicles that are still parked in the parking lot in the area since the tragedy occurred.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi and the head of the national Civil Protection agency are scheduled to go to Canazei on Monday, a tourist town in the Dolomites that has served as a base for rescuers.
Relatives are also expected to arrive in the town to identify the bodies, when they can be safely removed from the mountain.
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Jacopo Gabrieli, a polar sciences researcher at Italy's state-run CNR research center, said the long heat wave that hit the country between May and June was the hottest in northern Italy in that period for almost 20 years. .
"It's absolutely an anomaly," Gabrieli explained in an interview on Italian state television on Monday.
Alpine rescuers reported on Sunday that the temperature at the 3,300-meter-high peak had risen above 10 C (50 F) by the end of last week, much higher than usual.
Operators of the rustic mountainside lodges said temperatures at the 2,000-meter (6,600-foot) elevation recently reached 24C (75F), unheard of for this place.
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The glacier, located in the Marmolada mountain range, is the largest in the Dolomites.
People ski on it in winter, but it has been melting rapidly in recent decades and has lost much of its volume.
Experts at the Italian state research center CNR, which has an institute for polar sciences, estimated a couple of years ago that the glacier will cease to exist within 25 to 30 years.
The Mediterranean basin, which includes southern European countries such as Italy, has been identified by UN experts as a "climate emergency hot spot", susceptible to heat waves and water shortages, among other consequences.