Three people, including an American teenager, died in a large avalanche in Switzerland on Easter Monday, police confirmed.
Three bodies were found after the group disappeared near Zermatt, home to a popular ski resort in the southern canton of Valais.
A fourth person was found injured and airlifted to a nearby hospital after a dramatic search in the Riffelberg area involving four helicopters.
About 45 rescuers participated in the searches, including eight avalanche dog handlers, 13 rescue specialists, 15 firefighters and local ski instructors.
“The deceased are a 15-year-old American, as well as a man and a woman whose identification has not yet been completed,” according to a statement issued Tuesday morning.
The injured man was a 20-year-old Swiss man, authorities said.
Switzerland’s Valais attracts tourists from all over during its busy ski season, but authorities warn of the risk of more disasters amid heavy snowfall and gale-force winds in the region.
Shocking video shows the moment the avalanche fell near the Riffelberg area
Authorities warn that there is still a risk of avalanches amid hurricane-force winds in the region
The skiers were reportedly in an area prone to deep snow outside the marked ski slopes around 2 p.m. when the avalanche occurred.
“It seemed to me that at the time of the avalanche there were several people on the slope,” a horrified witness told local media Blick.
Bruno Jelk, former head of Zermatt’s mountain rescue service and current head of Mattertal avalanche monitoring, said several had gone off the piste on a “very steep slope” where footprints could still be seen.
“The search was not so easy at first,” saying Anjan Truffer, head of rescue at Air Zermatt.
Two of the victims were found with avalanche-seeking devices on their person, authorities said.
Police said the other two victims were a man and a woman, whose “identifications are still in progress.”
Truffer added: “At the moment, thank God, we have no more signs of people who may be buried.”
The ski area was about 2,500 m (8,200 ft) above sea level and experiences intermittent avalanche warnings.
A lot of snow fell over the Easter weekend as the mountains were hit by strong hurricane-force winds, according to local media. reported.
“Very large and in some cases extremely large spontaneous avalanches can be expected,” says the Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research.
‘The slopes are 100 percent insured. “There is no risk to the safety of people who only spend time on the slopes,” Truffer added.
In a second unrelated tragedy, a helicopter it crashed in the neighboring Combins region, between Val de Bagnes and Val d’Entremont.
An investigation into the cause is underway.
Police said it was initially unclear exactly how many people had been trapped in the avalanche in Zermatt.
At around 4.30pm yesterday, a media spokesperson said “probably at least three people” were trapped in the accident.
In the evening, rescue teams confirmed that they had stopped the search. All four were taken to the hospital.
On Monday, as the group discovered, the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research in Davos declared the second highest danger level for some parts of the region, including Zermatt.
The file photo shows the Tete Blanche mountain near the Swiss-Italian border and Zermatt.
General view of the popular tourist resort of Zermatt in southern Switzerland
Fourteen According to the SLF, people have lost their lives in avalanches in Switzerland this winter.
A family of skiers was found dead in the Swiss Alps in March after leaving Zermatt for the nearby town of Arolla.
The group of six people who were trapped raised the alarm when they were caught in a strong storm, which prevented helicopters and rescue teams from reaching them.
It later emerged that five of the six mountain enthusiasts had died near the Dent Blanche alpine hut.
Anjan Truffer told Swiss media: “The image we found was ugly… We saw that the skiers had tried to build a cave and protect themselves from the wind.”
“The skiers froze to death at altitude, disoriented,” he said, adding that their bodies were found scattered around the area, suggesting they had panicked before losing consciousness.
As the helicopters were unable to cope with the storm, five rescuers attempted to reach the crash site on foot from Zermatt, but were also forced to turn back to an altitude of 9,840 feet due to bad weather, according to local media reports.
On March 12, it was reported that the sixth missing skier may have fallen into a crevasse and survived.