Italian tourist, 28, killed in Alaskan ice slab accident

(ANSA) - New York, March 2 - A young Italian tourist on an excursion in Alaska was killed Monday when he was hit by a slab of ice that broke off a glacier, police said. The dead man was identified as Alexander Hellweger, aged 28, who died in the Chugach Mountains. He was part of a group of eight Italian and Belgian tourists and their guides which visited the glacier near Lake George at the end of a day-long helicopter skiing excursion. Alaska State troopers said they were not able to recover the body because of the danger posed by the possibility of other slabs of ice breaking off the glacier. They said that a new rescue attempt could be made Tuesday.