Chances of finding survivors are slim.

But drones and helicopters arrived as reinforcements.

The search for people who disappeared on Sunday in the collapse of part of the Marmolada glacier, the largest in the Italian Alps, resumed on Tuesday morning.

The disaster left at least seven dead and eight injured, and a dozen people are also missing by their relatives, but their presence at the time the glacier broke is not confirmed at this stage.

Among the injured, two Germans, a 67-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman, are still in serious condition.

No lifeguards on foot

Rescuers deployed drones equipped with thermal cameras, hoping to locate any survivors in the mass of ice and fallen rocks, said Monday Giovanni Bernard, mayor of the locality of Canazei, where the crisis unit coordinating the emergency services is based. research.

On Tuesday, only drone and helicopter overflights of the disaster area are planned due to the risk of further collapse of the glacier.

No rescuer will therefore go there on foot.

“The danger is that other seracs [blocks] of ice could break off.

The whole area continues to be forbidden to access,” explained the Canazei crisis unit, quoted by the daily

Il Corriere della Sera

.

“In the event of identification of objects, we will proceed to photographic surveys and possibly then to a rapid sampling”.

Record temperatures

The chances of finding survivors "are almost nil", warned the head of the high mountain rescue services in the region, Giorgio Gajer, quoted by the AGI agency.

The disaster, which occurred the day after a record temperature of 10°C at the top of the glacier, in the midst of an early heat wave on the Italian peninsula, is “undoubtedly” linked to “the degradation of the environment and the climate situation,” Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on the spot on Monday, expressing his “support” for the families of the victims.

Global warming in ambush

Only three of the seven victims have been identified, but their nationalities have not been released by authorities.

The glacier collapsed near the locality Punta Rocca, along the route normally taken to reach its summit.

La Marmolada, 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 March 1, the melting of ice and snow is one of the ten major threats caused by global warming, disrupting ecosystems and threatening certain infrastructures. .

Planet

Collapse of a glacier in Italy: "With the melting of the ice, there is nothing left that holds", warns a meteorologist

World

Italy: Searches resume the day after the collapse of a glacier which killed at least six people

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