Reports that five other skiers and boarders were missing near Alpine resort of Tignes are now thought to be incorrect

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Three members of the same family and their snowboard instructor have died in an avalanche near the busy French Alpine resort of Tignes.

The group was swept away at 10.35am local time as they boarded off-piste at an altitude of about 2,100 metres in the Savoie region of the central Alps, near the Italian border.

It was at first believed that five other skiers and boarders were missing, but on Monday, local officials said they did not believe there were other victims.

The 400 metre-wide avalanche, which struck the particularly high and steep Lavachet peak in the Tovière area, was believed to have been set off by a group of skiers higher up the mountain, the ski station said.

The avalanche was the worst to hit the Alps this season. It occurred during the school half-term holidays in France and several other European countries, including Britain, when ski resorts are typically full of children.

Another avalanche at La Clusaz early on Monday afternoon swept away a 30-year-old skier who died in hospital of his injuries.

The victims of the avalanche at Tignes were reported to be a 48-year-old French man, his 15-year-old son and the teenager’s 19-year-old half-brother, according to the emergency services. The fourth, an Ecole du Ski Français snowboard instructor was named as Laurent Ruiz, 59, an experienced mountain professional.

Local officials said they were walking through the snow carrying their snowboards to where they planned to set off down the slope when they were struck. All were reportedly equipped with tracking devices enabling them to be detected in case of an avalanche, but were declared dead when found, the Dauphiné Libéré reported.

On Monday afternoon dozens of rescuers scrabbled to find five others believed missing before nightfall, but late afternoon the local prefect told journalists: “We have good reason to believe there are no other victims.”

A fifth snowboarder reported to have been with the group “a few minutes” before the avalanche, but who escaped, was being interviewed on Monday to establish exactly what had happened.

It was later discovered that several others who were due to join the group skiing at Tovière had failed to turn up that morning as arranged, and were not with those hit by the avalanche.

Local officials declared the avalanche risk throughout the region to be high, at a rating of three out of five.



The ski station said it was a “slab” avalanche, caused when dense wind-packed snow breaks off.

Before Monday, 13 accidents had been recorded in the Alps and Pyrenees so far this winter, claiming a total of three lives.

One of the worst avalanches in France in the past decade took place in the summer of 2012 in the Mont Blanc range. Nine climbers from Britain, Germany, Spain and Switzerland were killed as they tried to scale the north face of Mont Maudit.

Last month 29 people died in Italy after an avalanche buried a hotel in the central town of Rigopiano. The force of the impact has been calculated by police as being equivalent to that of 4,000 fully loaded trucks.

In January last year 11 soldiers were swept away by an avalanche as they skied near Valfréjus in the Savoie. Five were killed and a sixth died in hospital several days later.