7 dead in French Alps avalanche

Date

9/16/2015 7:13:10 AM

(MENAFN- The Peninsula)

GRENOBLE: Seven people were killed Tuesday when an avalanche swept them away in the French Alps a local official told AFP one of the deadliest snowslides to hit France over the past decade.

The avalanche struck around midday at the Snow Dome in the Alps' Massif des Ecrins an -high mountain that is hugely popular with climbers.

Rescuers backed by three helicopters and sniffer dogs were dispatched to the scene but local official Pierre Besnard said search operations had now ended and the climbers' bodies were being transported down.

Prosecutor Raphael Balland said three of the victims were German and two were from the Czech Republic.

Another German woman was injured and was being treated in hospital Balland said adding he was unable to say where the two last victims were from.

"We have no information they had no ID on them" he told AFP.

Climbers and skiers are sporadically caught in avalanches in the popular Alps particularly during the winter season.

At least 39 people have died in snowslides this year in France according to the National Association for the Study of Snow and Avalanches.

In January six skiers were carried away by an avalanche in the Queyras mountain range of the Alps.

Just over two months later two Austrians and an Italian died in the Massif des Ecrins.

But this is the most serious accident this year and one of the deadliest over the past decade.

AFP

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