Three people were killed in an avalanche in the French Alps on Thursday, two of them in the Mont Blanc region and another further north, it was announced on Friday.
According to the British Foreign Office, two British skiers, a 54-year-old mother and her 22-year-old son, died while off-piste skiing at a French ski center in Mont Blanc, while another skier, believed to be an instructor, was injured. injured in the same area.
“We are supporting the families of the two Britons who died in France and are in contact with local authorities”the British Foreign Office said.
Thursday’s avalanche ripped through an off-piste area of the Saint-Gervais-les-Bains ski resort at an altitude of 2,300 metres, the Haute-Savoie region’s administration said in a statement.
Dozens of specialized mountain rescue teams began searching for the skiers, finding a dead man and a woman and an injured person, and rescued five others, the same source said.
An investigation has been opened into the cause of the avalanche.
The mayor of Saint-Gervais, Jean-Marc Peillex, believed that the weather conditions were too unstable to risk hiking off-piste.
“It rained, it snowed, it was warm. There are plenty of marked slopes for skiing”he said in statements to the press, adding that he regretted the incident.
“A family was decimated and we are very sad in Saint-Gervais”said the mayor.
Further north in the Alps, a 31-year-old hiker was found dead after falling from the slopes of the Ecrins Mountains.
According to local radio, which cited rescue teams, the hiker had wandered off the trail to watch mountain goats with a friend.
Source: DN
