(Rome) The toll of Sunday’s collapse of a huge block of the Marmolada glacier, the highest peak in the Italian Alps, rose from nine to ten on Thursday after the discovery of a new body, authorities said local.
Posted at 3:04 p.m.
“The number of confirmed victims rises to ten”, announced the autonomous province of Trentino (north) in a press release published Thursday evening. “During the day, rescuers recovered a body, spotted this morning in the area downstream from where the block broke off.
“At this stage, six of the ten confirmed victims (four Italian and two Czech) have been identified,” she said.
A team of 14 rescuers accompanied by two dogs went in the morning to the site of the tragedy, which has been off limits since Sunday. “During their search, they found organic material and objects. Everything has been recovered, transported to the valley and will be analyzed,” the province said in a statement.
A similar operation is scheduled for Friday morning.
The glacier had been weakened by global warming as well as by record temperatures recorded this year in Italy, 10°C at the top of the Marmolada the day before the disaster. The high temperatures accelerated its melting and water accumulated under the ice cap, making it unstable.
The Trento public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation to determine the causes of the tragedy due to the detachment of a serac which caused an avalanche of ice and rocks which carried away several roped parties making the ascent of this glacier, the highest peak of the Dolomites culminating at more than 3300 meters.
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 ten major threats caused by global warming, disrupting ecosystems and threatening certain infrastructures.