Death toll mounts as heavy snow hits Europe

THE DEATH toll from severe weather in Europe has risen to at least 17 as heavy snowfall continued to cause problems in Austria and southern Germany.

Austrian police said a 16-yearold boy from Australia was killed in an avalanche in St Anton am Arlberg as he was skiing with his family on Wednesday.

In neighbouring Slovakia, the mountain rescue service said a 37-year-old man was killed by an avalanche in the Mala Fatra mountains.

A seven-year-old child was killed in Aying, near Munich, by a falling tree which was reportedly weighed down by snow.

That brought to at least 17 the number of weather-related deaths reported in Europe over the past week. Several railway lines in the Alps were closed because of the snow, lorries and cars got stuck for hours on a highway in south-western Germany and schools were closed in parts of Bavaria. Roads into several places were closed, although Galtuer in western Austria, where a massive avalanche in 1999 killed 31 people, was reachable again on Thursday after being cut off.

The Austrian minister responsible for tourism, Elisabeth Koestinger, said that “in most skiing areas, there is no reason for concern at present if people keep to the rules and don’t leave the secured slopes”.

The weather in Austria was expected to calm on Friday but further heavy snow was expected on Sunday.