Italian rescuers had little hope on Monday of finding any survivors after part of the Marmolada glacier, the largest in the Italian Alps, collapsed due to a heat wave, which left at least six people dead and eight injured. .
The disaster occurred the day after a temperature record of 10 ° C at the top of the glacier, weakened by global warming for decades as well as an early heat wave which overwhelms the entire Italian peninsula and has accelerated its melting.
Rescuers deployed drones equipped with thermal cameras overnight, hoping to locate any survivors in the gangue of ice and crumbling rocks, said the mayor of the locality of Canazei, Giovanni Bernard. “These are dangerous conditions for the rescuers” who cannot progress on foot.
Helicopters were also flying over the area, according to an AFP photographer on site.
But the chances of finding survivors “are almost nil”, warned the head of the high mountain rescue services in the region, Giorgio Gajer, to the AGI agency.
A spokeswoman for relief, Michela Canova, said Monday that the death toll was still six dead and eight injured.
Among the injured are two Germans, a 67-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman, whose prognosis is “reserved”, said the Veneto medical agency.
“It’s a miracle that we are alive,” said Stefano Dal Moro, an engineer who was on the glacier with his Israeli partner. “There was a thud, and that’s when a sea of ice broke. There is no point in running, all you can do is pray,” he told the daily. Corriere della Sera.
Accelerated melting
The head of the Italian government, Mario Draghi, was to go there in the morning but his helicopter could not land due to bad weather conditions and he was diverted to Verona, his services said.
The glacier collapsed near the locality Punta Rocca, along the route normally taken to reach its summit.
The tragedy “is the consequence of the current meteorological conditions, that is to say an episode of early heat which coincides with the problem of global warming”, explained Professor Massimo Frezzotti, from the Department of Science at Roma Tre University. .
“The melting has accelerated in the Alps. We had an extremely arid winter, with a rainfall deficit of 40-50%. Current glacier conditions correspond to mid-August, not early July,” according to the researcher.
The pope said on his Twitter account that “the tragedies we are experiencing because of climate change must encourage us to urgently seek new ways that respect people and nature”.
“Queen of the Dolomites”
Footage filmed from a shelter near the disaster shows snow mixed with rocks rolling down the slopes of the mountain with a crashing sound at 300 km / h, according to local authorities. Other images taken by tourists on their mobile phones show the avalanche’s grayish tongue from afar, sweeping away everything in its path, leaving no chance for climbers in its path.
On images transmitted by the Alpine rescue, we can see the rescuers working near the site of the disaster, overflown by helicopters to transport the victims in the valley to the village of Canazei, not far from the place from where the cable car that leads to the top of the glacier. Families were expected in Canazei during the day.
“We found the bodies, in a pile of ice and debris spread over more than 1,000 meters”, testified Gino Comelli of the high mountain rescuers, quoted by Corriere della Sera.
The Marmolada glacier, nicknamed “the queen of the Dolomites”, is the largest glacier in this mountain range in northern Italy, which is part of the Alps. Located in Trentino, it gives birth to the Avisio River and overlooks Lake Fedaia.
According to the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published on 1er March, the melting of ice and snow is one of the 10 major threats caused by global warming, disrupting ecosystems and threatening certain infrastructures.
The IPCC indicates that glaciers in Scandinavia, central Europe and the Caucasus could lose 60 to 80% of their mass by the end of the century.