The death toll from Sunday’s collapse of a huge block of the Marmolada glacier, the highest peak in the Italian Alps, rose to 11 on Saturday. This assessment could be final.
“We can confirm that we have identified all the victims. We stopped the number at eleven,” Colonel Giampietro Lago, head of the scientific department of the Carabinieri, told the press after the identification by DNA of this last victim. “At present, we have no elements that make us think that other people could be involved” in this disaster, he added.
However, the search continued on Saturday. “Today, technical and organic material was found. Now the research continues with drones and we will do the same tomorrow,” said the president of the province of Trento, Maurizio Fugatti.
An open investigation
The glacier had been weakened by global warming as well as by record temperatures recorded this year in Italy, 10°C at the top of the Marmolada the day before the disaster. The high temperatures accelerated its melting and water accumulated under the ice cap, making it unstable.
The Trento public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation to determine the causes of the tragedy due to the detachment of a serac which caused an avalanche of ice and rocks which carried away several roped parties making the ascent of this glacier, the highest peak of the Dolomites culminating over 3300 meters.
According to the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published on March 1, the melting of ice and snow is one of the ten major threats caused by global warming, disrupting ecosystems and threatening certain infrastructures. .