Sharjah24 - AFP: Emergency services at the scene of a deadly avalanche in the Italian Dolomites recovered what body parts they could on Tuesday, with the dangers of venturing under the partially collapsed glacier slowing the search.
Rescue teams sent helicopters and drones up for a second day after Sunday's disaster, which saw at least seven hikers killed when a section of the country's largest Alpine glacier gave way, sending ice and rock hurtling down the mountain.
The nationalities of the dead remain unclear -- though the Czech foreign ministry told AFP two of its nationals were among those who lost their lives.
Eight people were also hurt, one of whom was able to leave hospital Tuesday evening.
Of those eight, two Germans, a man of 67 and a woman of 58, were said to be in a serious condition.
Italy has blamed the collapse on climate change and fears more of the glacier could come crashing down have prevented access to much of the area where hikers, some roped together, are believed to be buried.
Authorities had declared 14 people missing but revised that number down to five on Tuesday, all of them Italians, after managing to trace some of those initially unaccounted for.
They had stressed from the start that the exact number of climbers at the scene when the avalanche hit was unknown.
"Operations on the ground will only be carried out to recover any remains discovered by the drones, to ensure rescuers' safety," the Trentino Alpine Rescue Service said Tuesday.
Experts were surveying the area to determine how best to enable teams with sniffer dogs to get out onto the site safely on Wednesday or Thursday, the Service's national chief Maurizio Dellantonio told AGI news agency.
Relatives of people reported missing gathered at the town of Canazei, where recovered remains were placed in a make-shift morgue at a gymnasium.
"The important finds, not just bones, are first photographed, then recovered and put onto a helicopter" and flown to Canazei to be "catalogued and placed in cold storage", Dellantonio said.
Such finds were "bones that have not been flayed, a piece of hand with a ring, tattoos, anything that can enable a person to be identified", including shoes, backpacks and ice-picks.
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