A helicopter crew and drone flew over the Italian Alps on Monday, searching for 14 people who went missing after a mountain glacier collapsed, killing at least seven among disaster experts linked to rising temperatures happened.
Much of Italy is ripening in a heat wave at the start of summer and scientists said climate change was making previously stable glaciers more difficult to predict.
Sunday’s avalanche occurred on Marmolada, the highest peak of the Dolomites at more than 3,300 meters, a chain of the Eastern Italian Alps that stretches across the regions of Trento and Veneto.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said the disaster was linked to environmental factors. “Today Italy cries out for these victims,” Draghi said during a visit to meet with rescuers. “But the government should think about what has happened and take steps to ensure that what happened is unlikely to happen again or can even be avoided,” he said.
Trento region president Maurizio Fugatti said seven people were killed and two of the eight injured were in critical condition. An Austrian and three people from the Czech Republic were among the unaccounted 14 people.
“This is the first such accident in the history of the mountain,” said Gino Comelli, who is helping coordinate the rescue efforts. Comelli said the peak was so unstable that rescue teams could not attempt to reach on foot.
Pope Francis said he was praying for the victims and their families. “The tragedies we face with climate change urgently force us to embrace new ways that respect people and nature,” he said on Twitter.
Rising average temperatures have caused the Marmolada Glacier, like many others around the world, to shrink steadily in recent decades. “The collapse of the Marmolada Glacier is a natural disaster that is directly linked to climate change,” said Paul Kristofferson, professor of glaciology at the University of Cambridge. “High-altitude glaciers like Marmolada are often steep and depend on freezing temperatures below zero degrees Celsius to keep them stable,” he said.
(Additional reporting by Emilio Parody and Angelo Amante; Writing by Giulia Segretti and Keith Weir; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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