An outpouring of ice, snow and rock hit a group hiking in the Dolomites, killing six of them and injuring eight others, authorities said. It was not possible to determine how many people were in the area at the time, according to Walter Milan, a spokesman for the national Alpine rescue corps. However, local Civil Protection official Gianpaolo Bottasin was quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA as saying there may be 15 people missing and that the situation was “evolving”. Mr Milam said that of the eight injured in hospital, two were in a serious condition. Helicopters and rescue dogs were involved in the search around the Marmolada peak area, according to the National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps. The emergency dispatch service said 18 people who were above the area where the ice hit would be evacuated by the Alpine Rescue Corps. “A rockfall caused a crevasse to open in the glacier, leaving approximately 15 people trapped,” emergency dispatchers said. It was not immediately clear what caused the section of ice to detach and plummet down the summit slope. However, the intense heat that has been hitting Italy since late June could be a factor, Mr Milan told state RAI television. “The heat is unusual,” Mr Milan said, noting that temperatures in recent days at the summit had exceeded 10C. “This is too much heat” for the summit, Mr. Milan said. “It’s clearly something out of the ordinary.” Rescue services said those injured were airlifted to several hospitals in the Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto regions.
