Mile-wide avalanche sweeps five to their deaths

Five skiers have been killed after being engulfed in an avalanche nearly a mile wide in northern Norway.

One person was dug out alive from under 20ft of snow and taken to hospital after the snowslide yesterday near Tromsoe, on Norway’s Arctic coast.

The six tourists, five Swiss and one French national, were part of a group of 12 people skiing in the area when the avalanche struck near Sorbmegaisa mountain, an area near the Lyngen fjord surrounded by high peaks and popular with off-piste skiers and snowboarders. The party had apparently reached the area by boat.

The avalanche was triggered about 1,100 metres up, according to police.

The victims were wearing avalanche transceivers which guided about 30 rescuers digging through the snow. Police and military helicopters were also sent to the site.

“It was a demanding search,” said Tor Indrevold, of the local Red Cross team, adding rescuers were “digging down two storeys” of snow.

The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed four of its citizens had been killed and one injured. They were not named.

The northern tip of Norway is popular with tourists who go to experience the Arctic wilderness or see the Northern Lights. The region also offers cross-country skiing, reindeer sledging, ice fishing and snowmobile rides.

Avalanches are common in Norway at this time of year as blocks of snow and ice begin crumbling under the first rays of spring sun. Two Norwegian skiers were killed by an snowslide on the island of Kvaloeya, just outside Tromsoe, last month.

Yesterday, the local avalanche risk, measured on a five-point scale, was three.