Three separate avalanches in the French Alps killed six off-piste skiers over the weekend, despite high-risk warnings from weather services.
LYON: Three separate avalanches killed three off-piste skiers in the French Alps on Sunday.
This brought the weekend’s death toll to six, following three fatalities in similar incidents on Saturday.
The deaths occurred despite high-risk avalanche alerts and official warnings against off-piste skiing.
In one Sunday incident, a British skier aged about 50 was buried while skiing off-piste at La Plagne resort.
More than 50 rescuers found the man buried under 2.5 metres of snow after nearly an hour of searching.
He could not be resuscitated.
Rescue teams also recovered the body of another skier buried in an avalanche in Courchevel.
A 32-year-old off-piste skier died after being caught in an avalanche at Vallorcine in the Haute-Savoie region.
French weather forecasters had warned of a high risk of avalanches this weekend.
Officials in the Savoie region recorded at least six avalanches in the department’s ski areas on Sunday morning alone.
