Since last week, avalanches caused by severe snowfall have claimed lives throughout the Alps.
Vienna: Three Czech skiers were killed by an avalanche in central Austria on Saturday, according to police, raising the overall number of fatalities in the nation’s Alps to eight. Since last week, avalanches caused by severe snowfall have claimed lives throughout the Alps. Three of a group of seven Czech ski tourists were entirely buried when an avalanche carried them away in the Murtal district of Styria province, according to a statement from the police.
“Emergency responders were able to locate and partially dig out the buried victims,” they stated.The three people were discovered deceased despite prompt rescue efforts. An avalanche struck another group of seven off-piste skiers earlier on Saturday in the Pongau region near Salzburg, killing four and gravely wounding another, according to media reports that cited rescuers. An off-piste skier in the same location was taken away by another avalanche earlier on Saturday.The district chief of the Pongau mountain rescue service, Gerhard Kremser, was cited as saying, “Numerous avalanches occurred again today despite clear and repeated warnings—unfortunately with fatal consequences.”
“This tragedy painfully demonstrates the seriousness of the current avalanche situation,” he stated. A 13-year-old Czech who was skiing off-piste in the Austrian Alpine resort of Bad Gastein was killed by an avalanche on Tuesday. A 58-year-old ski tourist perished in an avalanche last Sunday in the western Austrian Tyrolean town of Weerberg. On Friday, while cross-country skiing in neighboring Switzerland, an avalanche killed a German man and injured four others.
Six skiers lost their lives in avalanches at several Alpine destinations in France last weekend.
