Death toll in Italian Alps glacier avalanche rises to 9

Search crews have found two more bodies at the site of an avalanche in the Italian Alps, bringing the death toll to nine, Italian authorities announced Wednesday.

Three people remain unaccounted for after a chunk of a glacier broke off and sent ice and rock crashing down the slope and over a popular hiking trail, The Guardian reports. Eight other people were injured in the tragedy, two of them seriously. Five of those who died have been identified so far: Filippo Bari, 27; Tommaso Carollo, 48; Paolo Dani, 52; and Liliana Bertoldi, 54.

Relatives of the victims have questioned whether authorities should have closed the area to hikers because the glacier has been melting faster and faster over the last decade.

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