Rescue operation under way as avalanche hits Tignes in French Alps

An avalanche struck a ski resort in the French Alps on Tuesday morning and authorities launched a search and rescue operation.

The avalanche struck the Tignes resort on Tuesday morning. Luca Bruno / AP Photo File February 14, 2017

TIGNES, FRANCE // An avalanche hit a ski slope in the popular French Alps resort of Tignes on Tuesday, engulfing “many” skiers.

Rescue workers and sniffer dogs were being deployed and staff mobilised at the sprawling resort.

“According to witnesses there are many people under the avalanche,” said a police spokesman.

The avalanche struck at around 10am (1pm UAE time). Fire engines and ambulances raced to the scene, which is close to where an avalanche last month killed four people who were exploring in an off-piste area. But poor visibility is so far preventing helicopter from bringing in more rescue workers.

Tuesday’s avalanche risk — normally assessed only for off-piste and closed slopes — was at four on a scale of five. At level five, all slopes are closed.

Most avalanches are the result of a combination of weather and geological factors. In general, an avalanche results from fresh heavy snowfall that fails to stick to snow already on the ground.

The avalanche on February 13, which occurred during school holidays, was a “slab” avalanche, caused when dense wind-packed snow breaks off from a slope. Rescuers quickly retrieved the bodies because the victims were carrying transmitters designed to assist in locating them. They had been only a few dozen metres from a ski lift when the 400-metre-wide avalanche ripped down the mountain. That incident brought to 14 the number of accidents recorded in the French Alps and Pyrenees so far this winter, claiming a total of seven lives.

Last winter there were 45 accidents and 21 fatalities. One of the worst avalanches in the Alps in the past decade took place in the summer of 2012 in the Mont-Blanc range. Nine climbers from Britain, Germany, Spain and Switzerland were killed as they tried to scale the north face of Mont Maudit, which translates as Cursed Mountain.

Avalanches can travel at speeds of up to 400 kilometres per hour.In January, 29 people died in Italy after an avalanche buried a hotel in the central town of Rigopiano.

The force of that effect was calculated by police as being equivalent to the three-storey stone and wood structure being hit by 4,000 fully loaded lorries.

* Agence France-Presse