The disaster struck one day after a record-high temperature of 10C was recorded at the glacier's summit.
PIERRE TEYSSOT/AFP via Getty Images
The disaster struck one day after a record-high temperature of 10C was recorded at the glacier's summit."An avalanche of snow, ice and rock hit an access path at a time when there were several roped parties, some of whom were swept away," emergency services spokeswoman Michela Canova said.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi expressed his "sincerest condolences" to the victims and their families on Twitter.Images filmed from a refuge close to the incident show snow and rock hurtling down the mountain's slopes and causing a thunderous noise. Massimo Frezzotti, a science professor at Roma Tre University, said the collapse was caused by unusually warm weather linked to global warming, with precipitation down 40 to 50 per cent during a dry winter.Glacier specialist Renato Colucci told the Italian agency AGI that the phenomenon was "bound to repeat itself", because "for weeks the temperatures at altitude in the Alps have been well beyond normal values".
The glacier, nicknamed "the queen of the Dolomites", feeds the Avisio river and overlooks Lake Fedaia in the autonomous Italian province of Trento.
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