AT least four people have died in an avalanche at the ski resort of Tignes in south-eastern France. The group of snowboarders is thought to have included two teenage boys, aged 18 and 15, and was buried after the wall of snow swept through an off-piste area, according to police reports.
Some early reports suggested there were nine people in the group – including a guide – and that the other five remain missing, presumed trapped in the snow. However, local police have been informed that the other members of the group had gone off with another instructor.
It is understood that the four snowboarders who were in the path of the avalanche died shortly after rescue teams pulled them out of the snow.
The 400-metre (1,300ft) wide avalanche occurred at an altitude of 2100m, and struck at a particularly busy time during half-term holidays. It was a so-called “slab” avalanche – caused when dense, wind-packed snow breaks off.
Avalanches can travel at up to 250 miles per hour.
The resort is popular with British holidaymakers, but local police said the four dead skiers were all French nationals.
The avalanche appeared to have been set off by a group of skiers higher up, officials at the ski resort said in a statement.
Rescue services had deployed two helicopters as well as sniffer dogs to help search for the missing snowboarders. There are about 40 people involved in the rescue operation.
The incident is the worst in France since the beginning of this year’s ski season. The avalanche warning level at Tignes yesterday was three out of five, while there had already been 13 previous skiing accidents in the Alps and Pyrenees this winter, killing three people. Last winter, there were 45 accidents, in which 21 people died.
One of the worst avalanches in the past 10 years took place in the Mont-Blanc range in the summer of 2012. Nine climbers from the UK, Germany, Spain and Switzerland were killed as they attempted to scale the north face of Mont Maudit.
There was also a severe avalanche last month in Italy, when 29 people died in the central town of Rigopiano.
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