While the emergency services continued to search for the victims of Sunday's glacier fracture on the Marmolada on Wednesday, the investigating authorities ruled out negligence as the cause of the disaster, with seven fatalities, five missing and eight injured, some of them seriously.
The chief public prosecutor responsible for Trento, Sandro Raimondi, described the glacial collapse as an "unforeseeable event".
The Trentino governor Maurizio Fugatti made a similar statement, who spoke of an "extraordinary, even unique event".
"At the time of the accident there were also mountain guides on the glacier, and therefore people who knew the mountain very well," said Fugatti.
Because of the risk of further glacier fractures, the authorities in Canazei, where the situation center for the emergency services was set up,
the closure of the entire Marmolada group until the end of the summer.
Despite the closure, mountain hikers were walking near the site of the accident on Tuesday.
Matthias Rub
Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.
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Because of the danger that also existed for the rescue teams, drones and helicopters were used to search for the missing persons.
A Financial Police helicopter capable of locating cell phone signals was also deployed.
According to the mountain rescuers, there is no longer any hope for the five missing people, all of whom come from the northern Italian region of Veneto.
If the mortal remains of the missing are sighted, they could only be recovered from the air for the time being.
Heavy rain was forecast for Wednesday evening.
The rainwater, so the hope of the emergency services, could wash away loose debris and enable the search on the ground again from Thursday.
Relatives of the missing had reacted with horror to the statements made by mountain rescuers,
after which the mortal remains of the missing could remain trapped by the ice and rubble masses forever.
The rock, ice and water avalanche had descended at a speed of around 300 kilometers per hour.
Meanwhile, the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Veneto Region are planning to set up warning and alarm systems on the glaciers.
In a first step, monitoring devices were installed at the Marmolada hut on the glacier, with which the smallest changes in the glacier front, both broken and intact, can be recorded.
The data is transmitted to a control center for analysis and processing.
Placing red flags on unstable glaciers to warn alpinists of potential dangers is also under consideration.
The South Tyrolean governor Arno Kompatscher, who got an idea of the situation in Canazei on Monday, said in Bozen on Tuesday that the mountain world must remain accessible to everyone despite the tragic event on the Marmolada.
However, since the dangers on the mountain have increased in recent years, those looking for relaxation and alpinists have to show more personal responsibility.
“Unfortunately, it is foreseeable that more such events will occur.
On the other hand, the time and place of these individual events cannot be foreseen," said Kompatscher: "We are all called upon to recognize and assess the increasing danger."