Avalanches, accidents kill 10 in Europe

Rescuers look for the bodies of three people killed in an avalanche in Bourg-Saint-Maurice, France, last Saturday.

Alpine avalanches and skiiing accidents killed at least 10 people in Europe over the weekend, with three people missing and warnings of more danger, emergency services and police said yesterday.
Two avalanches bore down the Bernese Alps in central Switzerland on Sunday, together killing at least five people including a doctor in a mountain rescue team dispatched to the scene, they said.
The first killed a skier and the second struck as emergency services were searching for survivors.
Eight helicopters carrying doctors, rescuers and avalanche dogs were dispatched to the site of the disaster and pulled out eight people alive, officials said.
Some of the survivors were in a critical condition and three died later in a hospital, including the doctor who had arrived to treat people following the first avalanche.
Rescuers also found the body of a hiker who had been buried in the snow while three other people were reported missing, police from the canton of Bern said in a statement.
Another avalanche struck in Switzerland’s western canton of Valais on Sunday, killing a skier although his mountain guide was able to come out alive, officials said.
The body was found buried under 80 cm (32 inches) of snow.
The Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research warned that there remained “considerable avalanche danger” in much of the Swiss Alps yesterday although the threat would drop today and tomorrow.
In western Austria, meanwhile, rescue officials said they had found yesterday the bodies of two German skiers, aged 18 and 19, who had fallen into a ravine in the state of Vorarlberg.
The man and woman were found near the Diedamskopf station, they said.
Another avalanche hit mountains on France’s border with Italy on Friday, killing three people, French police said.
Two of the bodies were found on Friday but rescue officials could only retrieve the third on Saturday, they said.
Western Europe is shivering through one of its coldest winters in decades with heavy snowfalls causing serious disruption to road, rail and air traffic over the Christmas holiday period.
Heavy snowfall overnight led to almost unheard of delays on the Swiss rail network and traffic disruption in Geneva.