• A significant portion of an Marmolada mountain glacier broke off.
• At least six people were killed, eight injured.
• An extreme warmth that has seized Italy since late June could be a contributing factor.

Italy: A significant portion of an Marmolada mountain glacier broke off and plummeted down an Italian mountainside, killing at least six people.

At least six people were killed and eight others were hurt when a section of a popular hiking trail on the Marmolada peak collapsed on Sunday afternoon.

At least five helicopters and rescue dogs were used in the ongoing search of the mountain, according to a tweet from Italy’s National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps.

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It used a phrase for a glacier pinnacle to describe how the hikers were “hit by the detachment of the serac.”

“There are eight injured, two of them in grave condition.”

18 persons who were above the location where the ice struck would be evacuated by the rescue corps, according to the SUEM (Servizio Urgenza Emergenza Medica) dispatch agency, which is situated in the neighboring Veneto province.

The avalanche was described as a “pouring down of snow, ice, and rock” by the dispatch service.

The tallest mountain in the eastern Dolomites is Marmolada, which rises to a height of around 3,300 meters (11,000 feet).

“A breaking away of rock provoked the opening of a crevasse on the glacier, leaving about 15 people involved,” the emergency dispatchers tweeted.

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The Alpine rescue service said in a tweet that the segment broke off near Punta Rocca (Rock Point), “along the itinerary normally used to reach the peak”.

What caused the piece of ice to break away was not immediately apparent. An extreme warmth that has seized Italy since late June could be a contributing factor, according to Walter Milan, a spokesperson for the Alpine Rescue Service, on Italian state television RAI.