- An avalanche caused by the collapse of an Italian glacier during a heatwave killed at least six people.
- Rescuers armed with thermal drones searched for body heat from potential survivors trapped in ice.
- Ice and rock thundered down the slope at 300 kilometres an hour (185 miles per hour).
Rescuers warned that the chances of finding survivors were dwindling after an avalanche caused by the collapse of an Italian glacier during a heatwave killed at least six people.
Authorities said they did not know how many climbers were caught when the glacier on Marmolada, Italy’s highest mountain, gave way on Sunday.
Ice and rock thundered down the slope at 300 kilometers an hour (185 miles per hour), according to the head of Trento province, Maurizio Fugatti.
On Monday, rescuers armed with thermal drones searched for body heat from potential survivors trapped in ice, although hope was rapidly dwindling.
Chances of finding survivors “are slim to nothing”, the region’s Alpine Rescue Service head Giorgio Gajer told AGI news agency.
The six bodies recovered so far were found “torn apart”, rescuer Gino Comelli said.
The disaster struck one day after a record-high temperature of 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded at the summit of the glacier, the largest in the Italian Alps.
The glacier had been weakened by decades of global warming, experts said.
Alpine Rescue spokeswoman Michela Canova told AFP an “avalanche of snow, ice and rock” hit an access path at a time when there were several roped parties, “some of whom were swept away”.
A spokesman for Trento province said people were still being reported missing.
Trento’s chief prosecutor Sandro Raimondi was quoted by Corriere della Sera newspaper as saying he feared the number of dead “could double if not triple”, based on the number of cars in the car park.
But Canova urged caution, saying the total number of climbers involved was “not yet known”. Eight people were recovered with injuries.
“I heard a roar, I turned to my left and saw a mass of ice coming down from the mountain,” ski instructor Luca Medici, 54, told AFP.
Bodies dug out of the ice and rock were taken to the village of Canazei, where Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi visited rescue workers on Monday.
Helicopters and sniffer dogs were called off as night fell on Sunday and amid fears the glacier may still be unstable.
“It is difficult for the rescuers in (such) a dangerous situation,” Canazei mayor Giovanni Bernard told AFP.
Images of the avalanche filmed from a refuge close by show snow and rock hurtling down the mountain slopes.
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