This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The downhill skiing champion Marcel Hirscher escaped unharmed after a drone carrying a camera fell from the sky and narrowly missed him on his way down the slope during a race in Italy.

The Austrian, who has won the overall World Cup title for the past four seasons, was on his second run of the slalom event at Madonna di Campiglio in Italy when the machinery smashed into the snow metres behind him.

Hirscher appeared not to notice and continued his run, but afterwards he said: “This is horrible. This can never happen again. This can be a serious injury.”

The 26-year-old 2014 Olympic silver medallist finished second behind Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway to reclaim the leadership of the overall World Cup standings from Aksel Lund Svindal.

Kristoffersen had also won the only other slalom race of the World Cup season to date, at Val d’Isere earlier this month, with Hirscher coming in second again.

Hirscher’s performances in other disciplines, however, see him top the leaderboard with 623 points ahead of Svindal on 600.