Marmolada glacier collapse in Italy kills seven

The collapse of a glacier in the northern Italian Alps led to the deaths of several people.

Two people are in serious condition after the collapse.

Bad weather has halted the search for 13 missing people.

The incident was linked to climate change according to Italy's Prime Minister.

Rescuers have identified four of the seven people who died.

An ice mass collapsing down the slopes of Marmolada was shown in the video.

When there were several parties, some of which were swept away, the access road was hit by an icy and snow covered slide. She didn't know the number of mountaineers involved.

Rescue officials said that the hikers were taken to many hospitals around the area.

It's not clear what caused the section of the glacier to fall.

The area has been experiencing high temperatures recently, according to Walter Milan, a rescue service spokesman.

The glacier's peak has seen temperatures reach 10C in the last few days.

He said it was extreme heat. It's obvious that it's something strange.

Climate change is to blame for the collapse of the glacier, according to the Italian prime minister.

"This is a tragedy that had an element of the unpredictable but is also linked to the degradation of the environment and the climate situation," said Mr. Draghi.

He said that the government would take measures to prevent another tragedy from occurring.

Climate change is almost certain to have played a part in the collapse of the Marmolada glacier.

The climate of the Alps is changing fast. The global average is thought to have increased by 2c.

The glaciers of the Alps are retreating due to that. Since the late 1980s, they have lost half their ice volume.

High elevation glaciers like the Marmolada, which are often on steep slopes and rely on sub-zero temperatures to keep them locked in place, can become unstable as glaciers retreat.

Paul Christoffersen is a professor of glaciology at the University of Cambridge.

The ice of the high Alps is changing in ways that scientists are still trying to understand.

The director of the Glaciology Centre at the University of Bristol said that the Dolomite mountains in Italy experienced a lack of snow in the winter.

Glaciers are melting fast because of the high temperatures and the lack of precipitation.

The section that broke off was part of a hanging glacier with ice cliffs that become particularly unstable in warm conditions.