Rome, Europe Brief News – At least six people have been killed after being caught in an avalanche sparked by the collapse of a glacier in the northern Italian Alps.
Emergency officials affirmed that six people killed, nine others injured in the collapse, with two people suffering serious injuries.
Rescue teams using helicopters and drones have been working through the night searching for 19 still missing.
The injured hikers, including one person left in critical condition, were taken to several hospitals around the area, rescue officials said.
It isn’t immediately clear what caused the section of the glacier, called a serac, to collapse.
But Walter Milan, a rescue service spokesperson, said the area has been experiencing unusually high temperatures in recent days.
“The heat is unusual,” Mr Milan said, noting temperatures have reached 10C at the glacier’s peak in recent days.
“That’s extreme heat,” he said. “Clearly it’s something abnormal.”
Reinhold Messner, an Italian mountaineer, told La Republica newspaper the glacier has been receding for several years due to the impact of global warming.
He further noted glaciers occasionally collapse “due to gravity. But he said the reason for the glacier’s retreat “is the global heat, which causes glaciers to melt”.
