French prosecutors said Thursday they were investigating why a teacher led a group of students onto a closed piste in the French Alps where an avalanche killed two of them along with a Ukrainian tourist.
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Two of the dead were teenagers, including a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old, while the body of a Ukrainian skier was also found by rescue teams.
The avalanche happened after a large sheet of snow broke off above a black-rated slope that had been closed after days of heavy snowfall.
Four children were hurt and their teacher was unconscious when a ski patrol found the group, Sky News reports.
Patrick Kanner, French minister for youth and sports, told Europe 1: “A judicial inquiry will say why the teacher, who was himself injured, took [the group] onto a piste which was not open”.
Among the injured, two pupils were said to have suffered cardiac arrest while another was described as seriously hurt.
Rescuers are still searching for the rest of the group, who are from the French city of Lyon.
At least one child was killed in an avalanche that struck the French Alps on Wednesday afternoon.
“In theory, we have retrieved everyone on the school trip, but the search is continuing to ensure there are no other victims”, said local government official Jean-Paul Bonnetain. “It was not skiable”, said Dominique Letang, head of France’s national agency of snow and avalanche studies (Anena).
Five other members of a group of pupils from Lyon are still missing, police reported.
Dozens die each year in avalanches in France’s popular ski resorts.
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“The fresh snow cover is not stable and too wet because of the high temperatures – slope conditions are variable across the ski area because of strong winds”.
