Glacier yields soldiers' bodies after 86 years

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Glacier yields soldiers' bodies after 86 years
August 24, 2004

The mummified bodies of a group of Austrian soldiers killed in World War I have emerged remarkably intact from a thawing glacier that has preserved them for almost 90 years.

Maurizio Vicenzi, an alpine rescue volunteer, stumbled upon the soldiers, still dressed in their tattered uniforms, about 3500 metres up on the dei Forni glacier, near the Swiss and Austrian borders, on Friday.

It is thought they died in the battle of Punta San Matteo, fought along a 50-kilometre front of glaciers in what is thought to be the highest altitude battle in history.

EDIT

Glacial thawing in the same area of north-eastern Italy, blamed on global warming, revealed several years ago a skeleton of a soldier and remnants of the so-called city of ice, including indications of bunkers, barracks, cells, corridors and storage areas, which Austro-Hungarian troops built inside it.