Seven dead in the Dolomites: Many are still missing after the glacier collapsed

After the glacier broke off in the Dolomites with seven dead, the search for missing people continues. Two Germans were apparently injured and rescued. The rescue work is difficult – further demolitions are imminent.

The rescue workers fear that the number of victims will continue to increase. More and more people would report missing relatives and acquaintances who left yesterday for a mountain tour on the Marmolada in the Dolomites. According to the Ansa news agency, the Trento mountain rescue service now assumes that there are at least 17 people who are still being searched for.

The death toll has now risen to seven, according to police. Four of them have been identified, according to media reports it should be three Italians and one Czech. Eight mountaineers were injured, including two Germans. During the night, the rescue work was interrupted for safety reasons.

Drone flights at the scene of the accident

In the morning, the fire brigade carried out drone flights at the scene of the accident to search for missing persons, but also to check whether rescue workers could go into the mountain. The rescue work, says Mario Brunello from the Trento mountain rescue service, is a challenge.

Massive ice fall 200 meters wide

The avalanche was triggered yesterday afternoon by a massive ice fall at Punta Rocco, the highest peak of the Marmolada. A mass of ice 200 meters wide then raced down the valley at a speed of around 300 kilometers per hour – also via the route that mountaineers usually use to climb the Marmolada. The Italian media are talking about the worst catastrophe of this kind that has ever happened in the Alps.

Mario Brunello from the Trento Mountain Rescue Service says: “Such a demolition is absolutely extraordinary. Sure, there have always been avalanches here in winter and summer. But nothing like this has happened before. And nobody foresaw it either. The ice has really changed detached from the rock at the very bottom.”

Scientists: High temperatures to blame for the crash

Daniele Cat Berro from the Italian Society for Meteorology blames the high temperatures for the ice break-off. Yesterday it was ten degrees warm on the summit of the Marmolada – a temperature that used to be reached in August at most. As a result, according to the scientist, water formed between the ice masses and the rock – and the ice then fell down the valley in an avalanche.

Messner: Glacier fall as a result of climate change

The well-known mountaineer Reinhold Messner says that the glacier collapse on the Marmolada is the result of climate change and global warming. According to Messner, these would “eat away” the glaciers. The changes on the glaciers of the Alps in recent years have been dramatic, agrees mountain guide Cesare Pastore. But Pastore doesn’t want to blame his colleagues, who led mountaineers up the Marmolada yesterday:

Draghi expected at the scene of the accident

Due to the severity of the disaster, Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi will also drive to the scene of the accident to get an idea of ​​the rescue work on site. The emergency services have set up a situation center in the village of Canazei at the foot of the Marmolada.