Sixteen-year-old dies after he was swept away while skiiing at St Anton am Arlberg

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A 16-year-old Australian boy has been killed in an avalanche in Austria, local police said.

Max Meyer was on a skiing holiday with his family at St Anton am Arlberg, western Austria, on Wednesday, when he was buried by the avalanche as his parents and 14-year-old brother looked on helplessly, according to reports.

His family had no emergency supplies or a shovel.

The family called for help after running into trouble while skiing off-piste near the St Anton resort in Tyrol, a police spokesman said late on Wednesday.

Before rescuers could reach them, the avalanche swept down an extremely steep slope, the Tiroler Tageszeitung reported. It took rescuers between 20 and 30 minutes to find the boy’s body.

The family, a German man and Australian woman and their children, live in Australia. The boy was reportedly a student at Sydney’s International Grammar School, which has offered support to fellow students.

“It is with deep sadness that I write to inform you that one of our students has died in an avalanche while skiing with his family,” the principal, Shauna Colnan, said in an email to parents on Thursday night.

“Max Meyer was about to enter Year 11, and his life has been tragically cut short,” she said.

“I have spoken with Max’s father today and have extended my deepest condolences on behalf of the IGS school community, and offered the family all of our support.”

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Parts of Austria and southern Germany had heavy snowfall on Thursday, as bad weather caused problems across Europe. At least 17 people have died because of the weather over the past week.

In Slovakia, the mountain rescue service said a 37-year-old man was killed by an avalanche in the Mala Fatra mountains, and a seven-year-old child was killed in Aying, near Munich, by a tree that fell under the weight of snow.

Several railway lines in the Alps were closed because of the snow, trucks and cars were stuck for hours on a highway in southwestern Germany and schools were closed in parts of Bavaria.

The Austrian minister responsible for tourism, Elisabeth Koestinger, said that “in most skiing areas, there is no reason for concern at present if people keep to the rules and don’t leave the secured slopes”.

The Australian foreign affairs department said it is providing consular assistance to his family.