No trace of life.

Under the mass of rock and snow, body parts, rings and tattoos have so far been found.

They will be used to identify the victims.

The macabre search continued on Tuesday on the slopes of Marmolada, the highest peak in the Italian Alps, two days after the collapse of part of its glacier weakened by climate change and record temperatures.

The disaster has so far left seven dead and eight injured, one of whom was released from hospital on Tuesday.

The number of people reported missing by their relatives, but whose presence when the glacier broke is not confirmed at this stage, fell on Tuesday from a dozen to five, all of Italian nationality.

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

Rescuers have deployed drones equipped with thermal cameras and helicopters to fly over the area but hope to be able to return to the glacier on foot from Wednesday.

The consequence of global warming

Meanwhile, the work of identifying mountaineers who perished on the Marmolada continues.

"The important discoveries, not just bones, are first photographed, then recovered and taken care of by a helicopter" and transported to Canazei where they are "listed and stored in a cold room", specified Maurizio Dellantonio, citing in particular "bones with pieces of flesh, a piece of hand with a ring, tattoos, anything that can help identify a person", including shoes, backpacks or ice axes.

Specialized technicians are also mobilized to install near a refuge "radar capable of detecting very fast movements, such as avalanches, and slower ones, such as landslides", indicated Nicola Casagli on the spot, professor of applied geology at the University of Florence 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, "symbolizes the so many tragedies that unchecked climate change is causing in so many regions of the world. “commented Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Tuesday.

Three deceased climbers identified

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

The Czech Foreign Ministry nevertheless confirmed that two of its nationals were among them.

The Trento public prosecutor's office has opened an investigation to determine the causes of this tragedy.

Some families accuse the authorities of having left the glacier open when the conditions for ascent were clearly perilous.

La Marmolada, nicknamed "the queen of the Dolomites", is the largest glacier in this mountain range in northern Italy, part of the Alps.

World

Collapse of a glacier in Italy: Resumption of research with helicopters and drones

Planet

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

  • World

  • Italy

  • Alps

  • Global warming

  • Climate change

  • Mountaineer

  • Czech Republic