Ski holiday horror after at least four killed in avalanche

The four people died in the avalanche on Friday on the Tyrolean-Swiss border in Spiss, Landeck district. One person is still missing, the Tyrol control centre told APA.

The identity and nationality of the victims are currently unknown. Two Swiss helicopters, an Austrian emergency rescue helicopter and a police chopper flew to the scene.

Tyrol saw an unusually large number of avalanches on Friday.

By the early afternoon, 13 had been counted although most of them had not injured anyone.

Earlier on Friday in Sölden am Rettenbachferner, an avalanche went from an open ski area onto a slope. Five winter sports enthusiasts were buried and recovered alive.

Jakob Falkner, head of the Sölden mountain railway, told APA that the slab of snow had apparently been triggered by the winter sports enthusiasts themselves in the field.

According to information from the mountain cable car operator, there was no one else on the slope. However, this has yet to be fully verified.

On the Rettenbach glacier in Sölden, a large-scale operation took place on Friday at about 11.40am.

An avalanche crashed onto a slope in the ski area.

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A daily avalanche report for the affected regions said on Friday: “Dry avalanches can be triggered by individual winter sports enthusiasts and become large.”

Particular danger spots were believed to be on wind-protected north-west, north and east slopes as well as on ridges.

Gliding snow avalanches were expected at low and medium altitudes as well as on steep grassy slopes, while there was a risk of loose snow avalanches on extremely steep sunny slopes.

Fifty to 120 centimetres of snow have fallen in the Samnaun area in recent days.

According to the Tyrolean avalanche warning service, some snowdrift build-ups were poorly connected to each other and to older snow.

With additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg