CANAZEI, Italy — Emergency services at the
scene of a deadly avalanche in the
Italian Dolomites recovered what body parts
they could on Tuesday, with the dangers of venturing under the partially
collapsed glacier slowing the search.
اضافة اعلان
Rescue teams sent helicopters and drones up for a
second day after Sunday’s disaster, which saw at least seven hikers killed when
a section of the country’s largest Alpine glacier gave way, sending ice and
rock hurtling down the mountain.
Italy has blamed the collapse on climate change and
fears more of the glacier could come crashing down have prevented access to
much of the area where hikers, some roped together, are believed to be buried.
Authorities had declared 14 people missing but
revised that number down to five on Tuesday, after managing to trace some of
those unaccounted for.
They had stressed from the start that the exact
number of climbers at the scene when the avalanche hit was unknown.
“Operations on
the ground will only be carried out to recover any remains discovered by the
drones, to ensure rescuers’ safety,” the Trentino Alpine Rescue Service said
Tuesday.
Experts were surveying the area to determine how
best to enable teams with sniffer dogs to get out onto the site safely on
Wednesday or Thursday, the Service’s national chief Maurizio Dellantonio told
AGI news agency.
Relatives of people reported missing gathered at the
town of Canazei, where recovered remains were placed in a make-shift morgue at
a gymnasium.
“The important finds, not just bones, are first
photographed, then recovered and put onto a helicopter” and flown to Canazei to
be “catalogued and placed in cold storage”, Dellantonio said.
Such finds were “bones that have not been flayed, a
piece of hand with a ring, tattoos, anything that can enable a person to be
identified”, including shoes, backpacks and ice-picks.
Still hope for survivors
Helicopter pilot Fausto
Zambelli told journalists some belongings had been spotted from the air, but it
was not yet clear “if that means there are victims there, or if they belong to
old hiking expeditions”.
He said hope of finding survivors under the ice was
slim, but not entirely gone.
“If there are ‘pockets’ (of air), there’s still
hope. Time is obviously short, but we still hope to find someone alive”.
The disaster struck one day after a record-high
temperature of 10°C was recorded at the summit of Marmolada, the highest
mountain in the Italian Dolomites.
Italy’s President
Sergio Mattarella said the
collapse was “symbolic of the many tragedies that ungoverned climate change is
causing in so many parts of the world”.
One of the bodies recovered belonged to a Czech who
was travelling with a friend now registered as missing, the Czech foreign
ministry told AFP.
The Trento public prosecutor’s office has opened an
investigation to determine the causes of the tragedy.
The glacier, nicknamed “queen of the Dolomites”,
feeds the Avisio river and overlooks Lake Fedaia in the autonomous Italian
province of Trento.
According to a
March report by the UN
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
melting ice and snow is one of 10 major threats caused by global warming,
disrupting ecosystems and infrastructure.
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