Five
French soldiers have been killed in an avalanche while on a training exercise
in the Alps.
The
avalanche came down close to Valfrejus, not far from the Italian border, where
some 50 soldiers were training off piste. Search
dogs and helicopters immediately began looking for the soldiers.
Last week,
two school pupils and a Ukrainian tourist were killed by an avalanche in Les
Deux Alpes, 124km (80 miles) away. A teacher
is now under investigation for manslaughter after he apparently led his pupils
on to a closed ski run shortly before the avalanche. Heavy snow
has fallen in the region recently.
About 10
of the military team were immediately found by rescuers and four were described
as lightly hurt. But the five who died went into cardiac arrest.
Reports
say the soldiers were skiing in the Petit Argentier are at a height of 2,2000m
(7,200ft) when they were caught up in the avalanche shortly before 14:00
(13:00GMT).
Unconfirmed reports said they belonged to the 2nd Foreign Engineer
Regiment based at Saint-Christol in southern France.
Two
soldiers were taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia.
Major
Pujol from the CRS rescue team said "We're still trying to carry out the
rescue and trying to count everyone in the area, to know if we still have
people there who've been buried."
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