17 missing in Italian Alps following deadly glacier disaster

By AP 4 July 2022, 2:02 pm

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Some 17 people remain unaccounted for a day after a huge chunk of an Alpine glacier broke off and slammed into hikers in northern Italy, officials say.

At least six people died and 9 were injured by the avalanche of ice, snow and large rocks thundering down the slope of the mountain topped by the Marmolada glacier yesterday afternoon.

This photograph taken on July 3, 2022 from Canazei, shows the ice serac that collapsed on the Marmolada, near Punta Rocca (Pierre TEYSSOT / AFP)

Trento Prosecutor Sandro Raimondi says that 17 hikers were believed to be missing, the Italian news agency LaPresse reports.

Nationalities of the known dead haven’t been disclosed, and conditions were too dangerous this morning for rescue crews with dogs to resume the search for those missing or to bring down the bodies.