According to initial findings, several people were also injured, wrote France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Twitter on Sunday followingnoon. The rescue work is still in progress.
A mountain guide among the dead
Two other people were missing, the Bonneville prosecutor said on Sunday evening. According to the Haute-Savoie prefecture, one person was injured and eight people survived the accident unharmed. The search for the missing persons was interrupted in the evening and should be continued on Monday morning.
According to the national union of mountain guides, two of the dead are mountain guides. There was no avalanche warning.
Eight people survived unharmed
The victims were skiing in the mountains, said Emmanuel Coquand, spokesman for the local authorities in Haute-Savoie. Eight people survived the accident unharmed. The glacier is close to the village and ski resort of Les Contamines-Montjoie. The avalanche was extensive, covering an area one kilometer by 500 meters at an altitude of 3,500 meters. The causes are currently being investigated.
According to Darmanin, the avalanche fell around noon on the Armancette glacier near Mont Blanc on the French-Italian border. The Mont Blanc (also written Mont Blanc, Italian Monte Bianco, in German “White Mountain”) is the highest mountain in the Alps. Darmanin thanked the rescue workers. He commemorates the victims and their families.
President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter that emergency services continue to search for victims and that his thoughts are with the victims and their families.
