Avalanche in South Tyrol: Two dead, five injured, 25 people involved

The provisional toll from an avalanche in Ridannna Valley that swept away a group of twenty-five hikers is two dead and five injured.

Two ski mountaineers were recovered dead from the snow masses, while another – of the five injured – was taken by the Austrian Christophorus rescue helicopter to the University Clinic in Innsbruck.

A total of six helicopters intervened on site (the three Pelikans from Alto Adige, the Aiut Alpin and the Guardia di Finanza and the Christophorus from Austria) and around eighty rescuers from all over the Alta Valle Isarco.

After the avalanche, hospitals in Bolzano, Merano, Bressanone, and Innsbruck, Austria, were alerted. The availability of intensive care beds and ECMO (extracorporeal life support) treatments was checked.

The alarm was raised at 11:40 a.m., when numerous groups were on the slope of the mountain, which peaks at 2,445 meters. The avalanche , with a 150-meter front and a length of several hundred meters, started near the summit and triggered nearly the entire slope, which is quite steep at that point, affecting a total of 25 ski mountaineers, most of whom fortunately only missed and were not swallowed up by the snow mass.

Just a few days ago, on March 12, South Tyrol commemorated the tenth anniversary of the massive avalanche on Monte Nevoso, above Riva di Tures. Six people died in the worst mountain disaster in decades, including a 16-year-old boy, engulfed by the avalanche before his father's eyes.

(Unioneonline)