Dozens of emergency workers swarmed the black piste – the highest difficulty rating in France – while three search dogs hunted for any other victims.
Advertisement
Three other students and the teacher were found after the avalanche, all of whom sustained injuries.
“Eric Arnol, a ski guide at Les Deux Alpes, told BFMTV that the work to find those dead or buried continued even after the sun set in the mountainous region”. Two of the victims have been confirmed as 14 and a 16-year-old students.
All other students from the group had been accounted for and were safe, the interior ministry said.
The slide occurred after a sheet of snow came crashing down onto the slope following days of heavy snowfall.
He says: “The ski area took a long time to open up today because the avalanche risk was massive because we’ve got huge accumulations of snow and high winds up there”. “It is in full knowledge that the group moved into this place and this closed slope”.
The newspaper, quoting police, said the first rescue teams on the scene found four people in cardiac arrest and a teacher unconscious.
BBC’s Tim Rhodes tweeted that he witnessed one person being recovered from the snow.
He said the French education minister was on his way to Lyon, the home city of the affected students.
Five people were found by a police patrol, while the search is on for five who are still missing.
Advertisement
They were on a mountain in the resort of Les Deux Alpes when they were swept away. “The fresh snow didn’t stick enough”. Expert Dominique Letang, from the country’s Association for the Study of Snow and Avalanches, theorized that the skiers themselves triggered the incident.
