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Ten People Die in Accidents in Italian Alps
Ten people died in accidents in the Italian Alps on Sunday, four of them slipping one-by-one to their deaths trying to save a dog, rescue officials said.
Mountaineering experts interviewed by state television RAI blamed the icy weather for the accidents in the northern Lombardy region, several of which involved people slipping off paths and falling to their deaths. The skies were clear over the Alps on Sunday but the low temperature had created a thin layer of ice over paths and snow slopes, making climbing and skiing extremely dangerous.
"The people who died on the Arera mountain were four climbers who appeared to have slipped one by one as they were trying to rescue a dog which had also slipped," said Giancarlo Stefani, a doctor at the emergency services in Bergamo.
Two more climbers died in separate accidents near the northern town of Lecco, which overlooks Lake Como and an Alpine skier died when he fell off a cliff in the province of Bergamo. No details were immediately available on the other three people who died. Rescue officials said the four who died on Mount Arera were expert climbers.
"The cold weather on Saturday and today may have frozen a thin layer of water on mountain paths. It happens often that water becomes an almost invisible layer of ice...it is very dangerous," Cesare Maestri, one of Italy"s best known climbers, told the Italian news agency ANSA. According to figures released by Italy"s Alpine Club, there were some 4,800 mountain accidents in Italy in 1999, up between two and three percent from 1998.
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