An avalanche that struck a school group skiing in the Alps has killed two French high school students and a Ukrainian skier. Their teacher was seriously injured and taken to hospital.
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One of the deceased was a 14-year old boy, while the body of a Ukrainian sir was also found by rescue teams.
“We have to interview the hospitalised teacher as soon as we can”, said Grenoble prosecutor Jean-Yves Coquillat.
With that information at hand, investigators are now turning their attention to the teacher who is believed to have led his students onto a ski track that was clearly marked as closed and risky.
The incident happened around 4 p.m. (10 a.m. ET) near Les Deux Alpes, a ski resort about 60 kilometers (37 miles) southeast of Grenoble, a representative of the tourism office in that area said.
Heavy snowfall in recent days had increased the risk of avalanches, said the regional government. “The fresh snow didn’t stick enough”.
After a slow start to the season, French ski resorts have received as much as 60cm of new snow in the past week, with the latest snow forecasts predicting more is still to come.
“It is absolutely incomprehensible that a group will head down this slope at ten to four in the afternoon, with darkness about the fall, and to be so high on what were closed black-graded slopes”.
Two of the victims were members of the school group from the eastern French city of Lyon. A telephone crisis center has been set up for relatives and friends at the school, which serves over 2,000 middle school and high school students. “This outing takes place several times a year, with the same instructors, and there have never been any problems”.
Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem promised an investigation would “throw all light” on the circumstances of the tragedy.
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The search continued into Wednesday night, but the French interior ministry confirmed that everyone reported missing had been found.
