Ten people died in avalanches on the deadliest day of the ski season in the Alps, despite heightened warnings of dangerous conditions off piste.
Five skiers were killed in a group of seven who were swept away on the Piz Vilan mountain in southeastern Switzerland while skiing at an altitude of 2,200m. Three of the off-piste skiers were found dead at the scene and two died in hospital yesterday.
A woman aged 58 and a 20-year-old man were killed in the first fatal avalanche in the Black Forest region of Germany since 1980. Three other people died in separate incidents in the Swiss Alps.
The avalanches happened on Saturday after heavy snowfall across the northern French Alps, much of Switzerland and southeastern Germany. Skiers were