Avalanches claim three lives in French Alps

AFP/APP

Lyon, Jan: Two separate avalanches claimed the lives of three off-piste skiers in the French Alps, local officials said on Saturday.

In one incident, two French off-piste skiers died after being buried by an avalanche at Val-d’Isere, the resort’s tourism office said. The two men were trapped under 2.5 metres of snow.

Members of their group raised the alarm, but rescuers were unable to revive them after finally reaching the site, according to an official statement.

Around 60 kilometres (37 miles) away, another avalanche struck the Areches-Beaufort resort, catching two off-piste skiers, a local official told AFP. One of the skiers could not be revived, while the second was taken to hospital with serious head injuries, said regional official Jean-Pierre Mirabail.

French weather forecasters had warned of a high avalanche risk this weekend, rating it four out of five on the European avalanche danger scale.

The two skiers who died at Val-d’Isere were not equipped with avalanche transceivers and could only be located through their mobile phones. Rescuers had to probe the snowpack to find them in an area measuring 10 by 15 metres, the tourism office said.