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ZERMATT

Bern boy dies after being hit by glacier rock

An 11-year-old boy from the canton of Bern died on Sunday after succumbing to injuries suffered while traversing the Gorner Glacier near Zermatt during an Alpine training course.

Published: 7 July 2013 22:12 CEST
Bern boy dies after being hit by glacier rock
Gorner Glacier, with Matterhorn visible at left. Photo: Pawel Kuzniar

The boy was with a group of seven adults and six children who had spent the previous night at the Monte Rosa mountain hut at 2,883 metres, Valais cantonal police said.

They descended from the hut in the direction of Rotenboden with the intention of taking the train from Zermatt, police said in a news release.

They crossed the Gorner Glacier in two groups roped together, with eight in the first group and five in the second, police said.

At around 11.15am, a piece of rock suddenly became detached above the route and struck the boy, who was the fifth person in the first group, according to the news release.

A member of one of the groups immediately contacted emergency services, police said.

Medics transported to the site by helicopter tended to the gravely injured boy who was flown by Air Zermatt to a hospital in Bern.

He died at the hospital at 1.45pm, police said.

The prosecutor’s office for the canton of Valais has launched an investigation to determine the causes of the accident.

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NORWAY

Body found in Oslo flat nine years after death

A man lay dead in his flat for nine years before being discovered in December, police in Oslo have said.

Published: 9 April 2021 11:20 CEST
Body found in Oslo flat nine years after death
Photo by pichet wong from Pexels

The man, who was in his sixties, had been married more than once and also had children, national broadcaster NRK reports.

His name has been kept anonymous. According to neighbours he liked to keep to himself and when they didn’t see him, they thought he had moved or been taken to assisted living.

“Based on the details we have, it is obviously a person who has chosen to have little contact with others,” Grethe Lien Metild, chief of Oslo Police District, told NRK.

His body was discovered when a caretaker for the building he was living in requested police open the apartment so he could carry out his work.

“We have thought it about a lot, my colleagues and people who have worked with this for many years. This is a special case, and it makes us ask questions about how it could happen,” Metild said.

Police believe the man died in April 2011, based on a carton of milk and a letter that were found in his apartment. An autopsy has shown he died of natural causes.

READ ALSO: Immigrants in Norway more likely to be affected by loneliness

His pension was suspended in 2018 when the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) could not get in touch with him, but his bills were still paid out of his bank account and suspended pension fund.

Arne Krokan, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said the man’s death would have unlikely gone unnoticed for so long if he had died 30 years ago.

“In a way, it is the price we have paid to get digital services,” he said to NRK.

Last year 27 people were found in Oslo, Asker or Bærum seven days or more after dying. The year before the number was 32 people. Of these, one was dead for almost seven months before being discovered.

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