Rome: The number of deaths caused by a powerful landslide triggered by a melting glacier in northern Italy has climbed to ten, with another victim missing and feared dead.
The landslide on the Marmolada in the Dolomite Mountains occurred on Sunday July 3 after a glacier collapsed amid unusually high temperatures, Xinhua news agency reported.
The immediate death toll was announced as six — all hikers and mountaineers — with at least a dozen more reported as missing. Since then, the number of dead has climbed, and most of the missing have been accounted for.
The body of the tenth victim was recovered early Thursday local time.
Luca Zaia, the president of the northern region of Veneto where the Marmolada is located, said the final number of deaths caused by the tragedy was likely to reach 11.
Rescue workers continued the search for the final missing hiker using hound dog units.
Officials have attributed the tragedy to scorching temperatures. When the glacier collapsed, the temperature at the mountain peak was reportedly around 10 degrees Celsius, when a normal temperature for this time of year is below zero.
Via social media, Zaia called for a coordinated and comprehensive strategy to monitor melting glaciers in Italy’s Alpine regions, to avoid similar tragedies in the future.
