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5 French mountaineers hit by avalanche found
Rescuers on Thursday found the bodies of five French ski-mountaineers swept away by an avalanche during an excursion in Italy's northwestern Alps.
- AP
- Published: 00:30 May 2, 2008
Rome: Rescuers on Thursday found the bodies of five French ski-mountaineers swept away by an avalanche during an excursion in Italy's northwestern Alps.
A single survivor remained in critical condition in an Italian hospital.
The bodies of four men and a woman were spotted by a helicopter shortly after dawn, following a suspension of the search overnight because of darkness and bad weather, said officials in the cities of Aosta and Turin.
The group was overrun by the avalanche on Wednesday afternoon at an altitude of about 2,500 metres while travelling through the Gran Paradiso National Park, an Alpine area north of Turin near the French border.
The group's guide, also a French citizen, was pulled from the snow on Wednesday evening after being found by a helicopter, said Claudio Rosset, an Alpine rescue official in Aosta.
The 45-year-old guide was in critical but stable condition in the intensive care unit of Aosta's hospital after suffering abdominal and chest trauma.
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