Moment skiers narrowly avoid disaster after passing helicopter sheds its load with enormous gas cylinder then careening down piste in Italy

This is the moment skiers narrowly avoided disaster after a passing helicopter dropped its load with a huge gas cylinder and then raced down a slope in Italy.

Under a perfect blue sky you can see the helicopter transporting goods over the Aprica ski resort, in the province of Sondrio, in the north of the country.

The plane dropped its load before the gas cylinder hit the ground in a cloud of snow and then hurtled down the slope, dangerously close to the skiers coming down the mountain.

The cylinder gained speed and grazed a skier who managed to avoid it in time and other people in its path moved to the side of the slope, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reports.

Fortunately, no one was injured and the cause of the incident, which took place on Sunday, is still unclear.

Aprica has relatively good conditions and most of the ski area is open.

It comes as more ski lifts have ground to a halt across Europe as resorts struggle to cope with a lack of snow following an exceptionally mild winter.

The stark images show entire mountains appearing bare when normally, in the peak season in mid-to-late February, they would be covered in snow and busy with winter sports fans.

In the French ski resort of Saint-Colomban-des-Villards, the lifts are stopped due to a lack of snow and temperatures reach 13°C. It is a situation that Le Parisien newspaper describes as “unprecedented” and locals declare: “I didn’t think I would see it in my life.”

Similar scenes have been recorded at the Artouste ski resort in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, where piste cleaning machines are lined up in a field next to immobile ski lifts.

Ski resorts in Austria have also been affected by the closure of the Tyrolean ski resort of Mutterer Alm, according to the Kronen Zeitung newspaper. And last week photographs emerged of dozens of snow cannons being used to reinforce the cover at the Swiss resort of Leysin.

Earlier this month, lifts were turned off and snow cannons were abandoned on the grass of 7,274-foot Mount Terminillo in Italy’s Apennines after it became “too hot” to use artificial snow cannons, a lifeline for many. tourist centers fighting shortages.

The snow shortage comes at the height of the ski season, when normally thousands of Britons would be preparing to travel to the Alps to enjoy winter sports.

Further afield in Bosnia, visitors to Mount Bjelasnica dragged their skis through mud to reach the ski lifts this week, as spring weather after the hottest January on the planet ruined their usual winter activity.

One hopeful skier, Aida Dedic, who had traveled to the Bosnian resort from the Netherlands, said: “I was surprised to see this mud, it’s different from last year.”

“It’s probably due to these climate changes.”

Other European ski destinations, such as Italy, have also seen entire snowless mountains and abandoned ski resorts.

After a warm December, skiers in the mountains surrounding the Bosnian capital Sarajevo enjoyed a few weeks of colder weather and some snow, but in February the thaw arrived.

One skier, Denis, from Croatia, said: “Unfortunately there is no snow.”

“We made reservations ahead of time, but we didn’t want to give up because the kids were looking forward to it.”