Snowstorm kills at least six tourists in Swiss Alps

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

A sudden snowstorm in the Swiss Alps has claimed six hikers while forcing three women to be hospitalized in poor condition as per the police who mentioned it on Tuesday.

Rescuers on helicopters have found that 14 people on Monday who were compelled to spend a night outdoors in the Pigne d’Arolla area while they had been crossing on skis from Chamoix in France to Zermatt in Switzerland, said police in the Swiss canton of Valais.

The dead comprise two Italian couples and their Italian guide, a 59-year-old who died in a fall and also a Bulgarian lady who had died in hospital on Tuesday as revealed by the police in one of its official statements.

Three women remain in hospital, and they are Italian, French and Swiss, one of whose condition is quite serious. In fact it is life-threatening, as per the statement of the police. Five people, on the other hand, are suffering from lesser hypothermia including three French nationals, an Italian and a German lady.

The rescue effort involved seven helicopters with rescue experts and doctors from the local air companies Air Glacier and Air Zermatt and the Swiss Air-Rescue Rega service.

As per the local news media reports, the temperatures in the area had dropped to below -5 degree Celsius that fateful night and wind and snow lashed hard on the mountain.

Rescuers were able to discover a total of 14 people, some of whom had hypothermia.

Others in the group were suffering from ‘mild hypothermia’.

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