Five climbers killed in Alps tragedy at 6,500ft

FIVE people were killed and a sixth seriously injured while climbing in the Austrian Alps yesterday, rescue services said.

The cause of the accident, which occurred below the Mannlkarscharte pass near Zellam-See, about 50 miles from Salzburg, had not yet been determined. But the group were apparently roped together when they fell from about 6,500ft up the mountain in a very remote area.

Anton Voithofer, head of the Red Cross rescue team, said: ‘We think a rope may have come loose.’

Five helicopters were sent to the scene, and the injured climber was taken to a hospital in Schwarzach. The victims and their nationalities have not yet been identified. It is believed to be the deadliest climbing accident so far this season in the Austrian Alps, where several dozen mountaineering deaths are reported each summer.

Two Italian climbers died on Sunday after falling into a crevasse. They were in a group of nine mountaineers roped together on a glacier in the Adamello Brenta Park near Trento in northern Italy. What caused the two to fall was not known.