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Runner dies in Italy-to-France ultra marathon

A runner taking part in an ultra-marathon in the Alps has died during the race after a fatal fall on a high-altitude mountain path, emergency services told AFP on Wednesday.

Published: 26 August 2021 09:04 CEST

Runner dies in Italy-to-France ultra marathon

The race traverses Mont Blanc. Illustration photo: Eric Feferberg/AFP

The 35-year-old from the Czech Republic was taking part in a warm-up event ahead of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, a famed endurance event that takes place every year around western Europe’s highest peak.

The man fell during the night after setting off with more than 1,000 other runners from the Italian ski resort of Courmayeur on Tuesday afternoon along the 145-kilometre course of the TDS race to Chamonix in France.

Emergency services were alerted after midnight on Wednesday and flew in a helicopter to the scene of the accident in the Bourg-Saint-Maurice district, but they were unable to revive him, local police commander Patrice Ribes told AFP.

Organisers of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, which takes places on Friday, said it was the first death in one of their events since their start in 2003.

Elsewhere in the French Alps on Wednesday, a 60-year-old climber died in the Isère region after suffering a fall of 30 metres.

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'They attacked us': Italian police officer recounts stabbing to trial of US students

Mario Cerciello Rega, the Italian policeman who was killed during a drug bust last summer. Photo: Eliano Imperato/AFP

Andrea Varriale claims his partner Mario Cerciello Rega was slain in an unprovoked nighttime attack on July 26, 2019 after the officers, who were in plain clothes, approached the two Americans, who had earlier tried to buy drugs.

Varriale described to the Rome court how he desperately tried to stem the bleeding from Cerciello's wounds until an ambulance arrived, but “the blood was spurting out”.

Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth allege they were attacked by the policemen from behind on a dark street in Rome, and defended themselves from what they believed to be dangerous drug dealers.

READ ALSO: 'A terrible affair which cannot go unpunished': Italy mourns murdered police officer

“We approached the pair from the front and we pulled out our badges, saying we were police,” Varriale told the court, according to Italian news agencies at the hearing, which was closed to most media due to coronavirus restrictions.

Elder, 20, has admitted to stabbing Cerciello several times with an eight-inch combat knife, but insists he did not know he was a police officer.

The San Francisco native, who was 19 at the time of the incident, says Cerciello attacked him from behind, while Varriale wrestled with Natale-Hjorth, then 18.

The two Americans face life sentences if found guilty of knowingly killing a police officer.

“They had nothing in their hands. We just wanted to identify them. They immediately attacked us,” Varriale said.

“I was grabbed by Natale and we wrestled on the floor. At the same time I could hear Cerciello shouting 'Stop! Police!' His voice was breaking,” he said.

“The whole thing lasted just a few seconds. I let my aggressor go because I was alarmed by Cerciello's shouts. I looked up and I saw him standing, and he said 'they stabbed me', before collapsing on the ground.”

The court then heard the audio recording of the emergency call Varriale made, but the father of Cerciello's widow was taken ill as the call was played, and the judge adjourned the hearing until Thursday.

READ ALSO: 'Stabbed 11 times with a US Marine knife': prosecutors reveal how Italian police officer was murdered

A picture of the knife believed to have been used to kill policeman Mario Cerciello Rega. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

Natale-Hjorth initially told investigators he had not been involved, but his fingerprints were found on a ceiling panel in the hotel room where the students had hidden the knife.

Under Italian law, anyone who participates even indirectly in a murder can face homicide charges.

The defence says lies told by Varriale in the immediate aftermath of the stabbing – such as whether or not the policemen were armed, as they should have been while on duty – seriously undermine his credibility as a witness.

The day after the Americans were arrested, a photograph was leaked to the press showing Natale-Hjorth illegally blindfolded and handcuffed at the Rome barracks where he had been taken for questioning.

Varriale admitted he had not only been present, he had taken the photograph and had filmed the scene as well.

READ ALSO:

Varriale stuck by his story that he had been carrying his gun until August 9th, when he confessed that not only did he not have his gun on him, but that he had conspired with a superior officer to lie about it.

The defence was expected to ask Varriale why he and Cerciello left their designated patrol area to track down the US students, without informing central command.

The Americans had earlier that night stolen the bag of a man who had introduced them to a drug dealer.

They say the theft was revenge for the dealer having tried to rip them off. What they did not know was that the dealer was a police informant.

When they set up a meeting to swap the bag in return for money, the police turned up

instead.

While Varriale says he and Cerciello showed the Americans their badges, Cerciello's badge was never found, and in the chaotic aftermath of the stabbing, Varriale was not asked to produce his badge or his handcuffs.

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