Four tourists, feared to have been swept away in an avalanche in northern Norway, are "believed to have died," police said on Friday.

Authorities combed the area in Tamokdalen using a helicopter and the search provided "hits on two signals from two different avalanche seekers".

Police said this confirmed "assumptions that the missing people have been taken off the landslide."

"We no longer consider it likely that any of the four have survived," they added.

The operation now changes status from a rescue operation to a search for suspected fatalities, police said.

Relatives of the deceased had been informed, authorities confirmed.

Bad weather conditions in Arctic Norway forced police to suspend their search on Thursday.

The risk posed by the avalanche made the conditions dangerous for rescue crews which were unable to launch a helicopter search due to deteriorating weather conditions.

Three Finns and a Swede all in their thirties, who were skiing near Tamokdalen in the northern region of Troms, were reported missing to police on Wednesday around 4 pm CET.

The map shows Blåbærfjellet in Tamokdalen. The avalanche area is shown in red and the usual route to the top in blue. www.politiet.no

Ski tracks were spotted by police going into the avalanche, but not coming out the other side.