TURIN — The death toll has risen to nine following the collapse of the Marmolada glacier due to a heatwave in the Italian Alps, rescue workers and authorities said, as search operations to try and locate survivors continued for a second day. Four of the confirmed victims have been recognised by family members, and five are unidentified. The number of people missing is now three, of which two are expected to be from the Czech Republic and are in the process of being identified, while an unnamed body remains to be identified. 

 Carlo Budel, the manager of the Capanna Punta Penia Refuge at 3343m on the Marmolada Glacier, has claimed to have heard water running under the ice days before the disaster. 

 Debora Campagnaro, whose sister Erica Campagnaro and brother-in-law, Davide Miotti, were still missing spoke to the press on Tuesday, accusing the local authorities of not having installed a detection and warning device that could have prevented people from climbing the glacier in such conditions. 

 Liliana Bertoldi, a 54-year-old street trader from Levico (Trento) was added to the list of victims of the Marmolada glacier collapse on Wednesday. 

 On Wednesday morning, four drones flew over the site, two from the Veneto mountain rescue, and two others from the Trento firebrigade. 

 Strong thunderstorms are expected in the coming week, which should allow for better visibility for intervening operators. For now, the glacier is too dangerous to search by foot, reported the National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps. 

 Eight people have been seriously injured with two being treated in hospital for critical conditions after being plucked from the glacier by rescuers using five helicopters.

 Rescue teams confirmed the climbers were hit by the “detachment of the serac” (a block of ice among the crevasses of a glacier). The serac broke away from Punta Rocca, close to the peak of the mountain, in a “pouring down of snow, ice and rock,” said the SUEM (Servizio Urgenza Emergenza Medica) dispatch service.

 In a tweet, the emergency service declared that the avalanche had fallen onto the route normally used by hikers to reach the peak because of the breaking away of a rock which led to an opening of a crevice on the glacier.

 Unusually high temperatures were recorded in Marmolada in the northern Dolomite mountains on Saturday, reaching 10 degrees on the peak. The glacier is said to have been shrinking for years and the recent rise in temperatures may have caused the collapse. “That's extreme heat,” said Walter Milan, a spokesman for the National Alpine and Cave Rescue Corps. “Clearly it's something abnormal.”

 Milan also confirmed that the accident was the biggest of its kind on the mountain in decades. 

 The Rescue Corps posted a phone number on Twitter so that family and friends of hikers and climbers who they have not heard from can call and report it, and they are also currently assessing numberplates in the car park to confirm how many are still missing.

 The alarm sounded at around 1:45pm on Sunday afternoon and a team of Alpine Rescue and five helicopters from Veneto and Trentino were immediately deployed onto the scene. The injured were flown to several hospitals in the regions of Trentino-Alto Adige and Veneto, according to rescue services.

 The Marmolada glacier, referred to as the Queen of the Dolomites, is the highest peak in the eastern Dolomites, reaching 3,300 metres. The glacier has been suffering the effects of global warming for a number of years, as it has continued to shrink at an increased pace.

 Prime Minister, Mario Draghi is due to travel to Canazei later today after his original flight was unable to land due to poor weather. In a statement he expressed his “deepest condolences” for the victims of the “terrible collapse”, and thanked rescuers for their work.