Two more bodies spotted near Italian avalanche debris field

With the aid of drones, two bodies have been spotted at the edge of a field of debris created by a chunk of ice the size of an apartment building that broke loose over the weekend, bringing the confirmed death toll in the disaster to nine.

Trento Provincial President Maurizio Fugatti tells reporters about the discovery Wednesday evening in the resort town of Canazei, at the foot of the Marmolada glacier-topped mountain.

Five people who had been hiking have been unaccounted for. But authorities stressed that until identification can be made on the two bodies pinpointed by drones, it will not be clear whether they number among those five whose families said they never returned from the mountain.

Conditions downslope from the glacier are still too unstable for searchers and dogs to work on the mountain, officials say.

All of the missing are Italians. So far, four of the nine dead have been identified.