SEVEN PEOPLE have been killed in a string of deadly avalanches in the Italian Alps.
The bodies of the victims, including four rescuers, were being recovered today. A German boy hit by one of the avalanches while snowboarding off-piste is fighting for his life at a hospital in Bolzano.
The rescuers died in the Val Lasties area of the Dolomites, east of Bolzano. Members of a party of seven expert mountaineers, they had climbed to 2,000m in search of two Italian tourists who had ventured into the area on snow shoes and been struck by the first of the avalanches. The group reached a mountain refuge on Saturday night and set off again in the dark when they were caught in an avalanche. One of the survivors raised the alarm.
The bodies of the two tourists were located by a bigger expedition consisting of tracker dogs and 40 rescuers, including members of the fire brigade and the paramilitary Carabinieri. In the mountains west of Bolzano, a third avalanche struck three young Germans after they left the ski runs near Malga Madriccio to take a short-cut across the slopes above 3,000m. A 12-year-old boy was found dead below the snow, his older brother survived unharmed and their injured friend was taken to hospital by helicopter. None had been carrying a beacon or other location-indicating device, hampering rescue efforts.
Meanwhile, an Italian minister yesterday said he was “fed up” with mountain rescuers losing their lives trying to save people who were the victims of their own imprudence. Guido Bertolaso was speaking after four Alpine rescuers were swept to their deaths, and were among the seven people whose bodies were being recovered yesterday.
– (Guardian service)