“Dozens” of winter sports enthusiasts were buried Sunday in an avalanche in Austria’s Vorarlberg region (west), police said.
• Also read: Strong winds lift cars and cause damage
• Also read: More than 114,000 customers are still without electricity
• Also read: 53 people were hospitalized after a bus accident
“One person has been rescued, while the operation continues to find the others,” an army spokesman told AFP, without giving further details about their fate.
Helicopters and several teams with dogs were mobilized for the search.
The avalanche occurred around 3:00 pm local time (2:00 pm GMT) at an altitude of about 2,700 meters above sea level, in the Lech Zürz ski area.
No information was provided on the identity of those affected.
This weekend rescuers warned of an avalanche risk in this area as well as in neighboring Tyrol, noting the fragility of the snowpack in the context of fair weather.
In recent years, in Austria, avalanches have caused an annual rate of nearly twenty deaths.
