Four people have died in an avalanche in the French Alps. (file)
Paris:
Four people were killed and nine others injured in an avalanche on Sunday (local time) southwest of Mont Blanc in the French Alps, DW News reported.
He wrote on Twitter, Avalanche occurred on Armansett Glacier in the middle of the day.
The four people caught in the avalanche were backcountry skiing in the mountains and have not yet been identified, DW News reports.
The incident occurred in the middle of the day at Armansett Glacier, at an altitude of approximately 3,500 meters (11,500 ft). The glacier is located in the Haute-Savoie region, about 30 kilometers (about 20 mi) southwest of Chamonix.
Chamonix, the small town at the base of Mont Blanc, is a major holiday destination over France’s long Easter weekend.
Emmanuel Coquand, a spokesman for the local authorities in Haute-Savoie, said the avalanche was widespread, DW News reported.
The local France-Bleu radio station reported the size of the avalanche as 1,000 meters (3,280 ft) long and 100 meters (328 ft) wide.
Quoting the local prefecture of Thonon, the station said two helicopters had been dispatched to help with the search, DW News reported.
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter that rescue workers were searching for more casualties and that his thoughts were with the victims and their families.
The news comes a day after Swiss authorities rescued a group of hikers trapped in a snowslide in the Swiss Alps, DW News reported.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)