Two people have been killed after being caught in a large avalanche in northern Italy, the country’s mountain rescue service has said.
Three others were seriously injured and two people suffered minor injuries after it swept through a busy high alpine slope.
The incident happened at an altitude of around 2,400 meters (7,874 feet) on the slopes of the 2,669-meter (8,757 feet) Hohe Ferse mountain (also known as Monte Tallone Grande) near the town of Ratschings, close to the border with Austria.
A total of 25 skiers were caught in the avalanche in the South Tyrol region on Saturday morning.
The CNSAS rescue service has not specified if the remaining 18 people were trapped or rescued and what, if any, injuries they suffered. But, according to Italian news agency ANSA, most of them “were only grazed and not swallowed up by the mass of snow”.
The agency’s report said the avalanche had a “150m front and a length of several hundred metres”.
A major rescue operation was launched as six helicopters and around 80 rescue staff from CNSAS, the Alpine Association, police and firefighters, along with sniffer dogs, were sent to the scene.
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It was the latest in what European Avalanche Warning Services (EAWS) describes as an unusually high number of avalanches on the continent’s slopes this season.
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A total of 127 people had died by 16 March, including 33 in Italy, 31 in France and 29 in Austria, compared to an annual average of 100, EAWS said.
In early February, a record 13 people died on Italian slopes in one week.
Last month, two British skiers died in an avalanche in France.
The high number of deaths is down to an exceptionally unstable snowpack and the rush of skiers taking on off-piste slopes after recent heavy snowstorms, experts have said.
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Rising temperatures and stronger winds, seen as contributory factors, are the result of climate change, climate experts have argued.
The avalanche danger in the Ridanna Valley, where the latest avalanche occurred, is currently moderate.
