Skiers buried in four Alps avalanches
MOUNTAIN rescuers and helicopters were searching last night for missing holidaymakers after a series of avalanches in Austria and Switzerland.
Two skiers were found injured, with more feared buried under the snow, Swiss and Austrian police said.
After an avalanche struck the Swiss resort of Andermatt in the Ursern Valley, emergency workers rescued two people who were airlifted to hospital with minor injuries. Four other skiers were pulled from the snow unhurt.
The slopes were crowded when the avalanche occurred.
Stefan Kern, a spokesman at the resort, said: “It is possible that other people have been buried.”
Reto Pfister, a police spokesman, said rescuers were working on the assumption that there could be other victims and would continue searches.
Mountain rescue teams with dogs specially trained to sniff out people under the snow were combing the slopes at Andermatt, but had found no further casualties by the end of the day.
Two hundred miles east of Andermatt, three avalanches struck at the Ankogel resort in Austria. Two offpiste skiers were buried but managed to climb out of the snow.
Rescuers conducted searches at Ankogel, fearing there were further victims, but had not found anyone by the end of the day, said a police spokesman.
The avalanche risk throughout the Alps is at level three on a scale of five, according to the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research. The threat stems mainly from fresh snow and snowdrifts caused by wind.
“A dangerous avalanche can sometimes be triggered by a single skier if conditions are hazardous and there’s a lot of loose snow,” an official said.
A skier who narrowly escaped the Andermatt avalanche with his daughter told the online newspaper 20 Minutes: “It happened in a flash. Our only thought was to get a move on to try to get out of the way. We were very lucky.
I’m thanking my guardian angel.” He added that helicopters arrived within minutes of the avalanche, which officials said was 300 metres (1,000ft) long and 60 metres (200ft) wide.
No one had been reported as missing by last night.
A Swiss official said: “The police have to keep looking in case there’s anyone else trapped out there, but we’re crossing our fingers and hoping there isn’t. If anyone was missing, their families or friends would usually have notified us by this stage.”