At least five people, including four Swedes, died in an avalanche in the Austrian state of Tyrol on Friday.
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According to the police in the village of Landeck, the landslide claimed the lives of four Swedes, while a Swedish citizen was injured and transported to a hospital in Switzerland. The fifth deceased is an Austrian ski guide.
The Swede who survived sounded the alarm on WhatsApp.
The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to TT around 4.30 on Saturday that four Swedish men in their 40s have died. They belong to Svealand and Götaland.
Georg Plattner at the Landeck police tells Dagens Nyheter that the dead Swedes were part of a larger group visiting the area. Everyone was driving off-piste when the avalanche was triggered at 13 o’clock on Friday.
Dramatically
According to police press release the guide and the four Swedes were swept away by the avalanche and buried 350 meters away. The fifth Swede was dragged by 250 meters and was only partially buried. Using his mobile phone, he sounded the alarm to a colleague in Sweden.
Aftonbladet writes that The TV company ORF states that it happened via a chat group in WhatsApp. The colleague in Sweden thus contacted another Swede who was close to the ski resort Landeck. That person alerted the police around 13.04.
Since no exact location was given, the emergency services searched the border area on the Tyrolean and Swiss sides.
Around 13.22, a helicopter was able to detect a fresh avalanche cone and finally an ABS balloon sticking out of the snow.
The other Swiss and Tyrolean emergency services were ordered to the avalanche cone and were able to locate and rescue all the buried persons in a short time using an avalanche transmitter, the police write in the press release, adding that the guide and four Swedes were dead. The fifth Swede has been transported to hospital.
Much snow
The avalanche occurred in Spiss near the Austrian-Swiss border, and both Swiss and Austrian helicopters contributed to the rescue work.
Tyrol has received a lot of snow in recent days, and at least 31 separate avalanches were registered on Friday afternoon. Injured or dead have been reported in at least four of the landslides.
Another landslide, at Sölden a little further east in the region, also took with it five skiers. However, these came out alive. Sölden is known for hosting the opening race of the World Cup in alpine skiing.
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Norwegians taken
On Thursday at ten o’clock, two Norwegians also ended up skiing in a 100 meter board and 50 meter long avalanche in Sölden in Austria.
According to the police, they drove off the secured trail.
One of the Norwegians became according to police taken off the avalanche and completely buried by the snow masses, but the arm protruded from the snow masses. The other Norwegian skier in his twenties thus managed to find the person immediately and dig the person out unharmed.
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