Thursday, March 28

Death toll rises to 9 from calving glacier in Italy’s Alps

The number of fatalities caused by the collapse of a part of the Marmolada glacier, in the Italian Alps, has risen to nine, after the bodies of new victims were located on Wednesday, according to local authorities.

Of the deceased, four have already been recognized by their relatives, as explained by the president of the autonomous province of Trento (north), Maurizio Fugatti.

The officially disappeared are three and the search efforts continue by air, using drones and helicopters, due to the danger involved in doing so by land due to the risk of new landslides due to the high temperatures in this area.

Fugatti has asked to take these data “with caution”, since the balance is still provisional and in the last hours mountaineers and people who were believed to be missing, but who were actually safe in other places, have been located.

The president of Trento, confirming the new victims, has dispelled the doubt as to whether the new remains found belonged to people already confirmed dead or to others, since the bodies have suffered significant damage.

The wounded, of varying degrees, are seven, of which four are hospitalized in Trento and three in the Veneto region.

The tragedy occurred last Sunday in the Dolomite alpine mountains, when a portion of the Marmolada glacier, 200 meters long, 60 wide and 30 thick, broke off down the mountain, crushing everything in its path. The rescue teams consider it difficult to find all the missing, since the mass of ice and rocks that collapsed is equivalent to two football fields 30 meters thick.

The president of Veneto, Luca Zaia, has considered this Wednesday as a “moral duty” to return the bodies to the relatives.



www.eldiario.es