8 presumed killed in French Alps avalanche
source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/24/france.climbing.accident.ap/index.html
-
-
- merasyad
- added this
Eight climbers were missing and presumed dead Sunday after an avalanche near Mont Blanc, western Europe's highest peak, was triggered when a chunk of ice as wide as two football fields broke off a mountain face.
The avalanche -- in which the ice fell onto a hiking trail -- appeared poised to become the deadliest one this year in the French, Swiss or Italian Alps, and the worst in the French Alps in more than a decade, French officials said.
Five Austrians and three Swiss were missing. Seven other people were hospitalized with injuries.
The avalanche began at about 3 a.m. after a massive block of ice known as a serac cracked off a side of the Mont Blanc du Tacul, one of the peaks in the Mont Blanc range, at an altitude of about 11,800 feet, the Haute-Savoie regional government office said in a statement.
The avalanche -- in which the ice fell onto a hiking trail -- appeared poised to become the deadliest one this year in the French, Swiss or Italian Alps, and the worst in the French Alps in more than a decade, French officials said.
Five Austrians and three Swiss were missing. Seven other people were hospitalized with injuries.
The avalanche began at about 3 a.m. after a massive block of ice known as a serac cracked off a side of the Mont Blanc du Tacul, one of the peaks in the Mont Blanc range, at an altitude of about 11,800 feet, the Haute-Savoie regional government office said in a statement.
-
- tags:
- France, Tragedy, Avalanches, Alps
