Eight missing climbers located after Italian glacier collapse

CANAZEI, (Italy): Eight of the people missing after the deadly collapse of part of a mountain glacier have been safely located, Italian media reported on Tuesday, bringing some relief for rescue teams searching for survivors.

At least seven people were killed in the avalanche on Sunday on the Marmolada, which at more than 3,300 metres (10,830 ft) is the highest peak in the Dolomites, a range in the eastern Italian Alps straddling the regions of Trento and Veneto.

“When we arrived we saw a disaster, we realised the dimensions of this enormous avalanche,” said Stefano Coter, head of the local alpine rescue team and one of the first people to reach the scene. “We found injured people in need of help and other people who were dead,” he added.

Much of Italy has been baking in an early-summer heatwave and scientists said climate change was making previously stable glaciers more difficult to predict.