15-year-old US-American among the avalanche victims in Zermatt
Published: Tuesday, Apr 2nd 2024, 11:40
Updated At: Tuesday, Apr 2nd 2024, 17:01
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After an avalanche on Easter Monday in Zermatt VS, no further victims had been rescued by Tuesday. Three people were killed, including a 15-year-old American.
The identification of the two other fatalities, a man and a woman, has not yet been completed, as the Valais cantonal police announced on Tuesday. One man was rescued injured from the masses of snow. He was a 20-year-old Swiss man. He was flown to hospital with serious injuries.
The avalanche broke loose shortly after 2 p.m. on Monday away from the ski slopes on the Riffelberg. An extensive search was immediately launched in the affected area. The search was discontinued on Monday evening.
Zermatt rescue chief Anjan Truffer told Swiss Radio SRF's Regionaljournal Bern Freiburg Wallis on Tuesday afternoon that there were no more reports of missing persons. The search has therefore been concluded.
The public prosecutor's office has launched an investigation in collaboration with the cantonal police to determine the exact circumstances of the accident.
Critical avalanche danger
Lots of fresh snow and gale-force winds have caused a considerable avalanche risk, the middle of five danger levels, in Switzerland's southern Alpine regions over the past few days. The WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research in Davos GR announced the second-highest danger level for parts of Graubünden and Valais.
According to the website of the Zermatt mountain railroads, there was a high avalanche danger level 4 on Monday. Even with considerable avalanche danger, a single snow sports enthusiast can easily trigger an avalanche. Spontaneous and often very large avalanches are likely when the avalanche danger is high.
With the latest victims this winter, 17 people have died in avalanches in the mountains in Switzerland so far. Most of the victims were ski tourers.
©Keystone/SDA
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