Nine dead as 100 avalanches hit Austria

Most of the avalanches have hit Austria's western Tyrol region

Rescue helicopters on a street near the Gammerspitze after an avalanche killed one person on February 4, 2022. AFP

Nine people died in three days during which more than 100 avalanches struck Austria, authorities said on Sunday.

Most of the avalanches hit the western Tyrol region and there were five deaths on Friday, rescue services said.

Police said that one incident claimed the lives of a group of Swedish skiers going off-piste with a mountain guide in the zone around Ischgl, near the Swiss border.

The guide and four of the group were swept away, with only one member surviving. He called for help and was flown out by helicopter.

Also on Friday, a man aged 60 and his wife, 61, were engulfed while cross-country skiing near the village of Auffach, Tyrol police said.

On Saturday, an Austrian aged 58 was killed at Schirmn near Innsbruck in an avalanche that injured four others.

Further west, an experienced skier, 43, was killed in the popular Vorarlberg region as Austria had exceptional snowfall going into and across the weekend.

Five winter sports enthusiasts were buried by snowfall in the major resort of Soelden but were all rescued.

"The past three days have seen some 100 avalanche-type incidents requiring 70 interventions," Tyrol regional authorities said on Sunday, calling the situation "unprecedented" and warning of more to come.

In recent years, avalanches have claimed about 20 lives annually in Austria, but fewer over the past two years after the pandemic vastly reduced the numbers of skiers.

In neighbouring Switzerland, an avalanche in Reckingen in the south-eastern Wallis region killed a 68-year-old on Saturday and injured a second person, police said.

The two were in a group of four Italian hikers and were quickly found and freed from the snow by the other two. One died at the scene and the other was flown to hospital.

According to a provisional report by the MeteoSwiss weather service on Friday, people have been caught up in 45 avalanches so far this winter.

The bureau urged people to be "careful, careful, careful".

On Thursday, one person died and others were injured in avalanches in Switzerland's Graubunden region, which shares a border with Tyrol.