British man, 27, killed by avalanche in French Alps

A British man has died after he was buried by an avalanche at a ski resort in the French Alps, local officials have said.

The man, 27, was near the roadside at the Val Thorens resort when he was swept up and carried 15 metres (50ft) by snow on Thursday morning, a local prosecutor said.

The Briton, who has not yet been named, had already gone into cardiac arrest when police officers arrived at the scene to pull him out of the snow.

He was taken to a hospital in Grenoble, in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region, where he died later that evening.

His family is being supported by local services, the prosecutor added, and an investigation into the incident has been launched.

A spokesperson for the UK’s foreign office said: “We supporting the family of a British man who died in France and are in contact with the local authorities.”

Heavy snow has hit the Alps in recent days, with thousands of homes in the Savoie region of eastern France left without power.

On Thursday, road and rail routes were cut off into the resort of Zermatt in the southern canton of Valais and tourists and residents were told to stay indoors in the French resort of Tignes.

Tignes Mayor Serge Revial said there was a high risk of avalanches and that a decision had to be made “to protect people”.

South of Zermatt, power outages were reported in 37 of the 74 municipalities in the Aosta Valley in north-west Italy, and a bridge collapsed in Biella in nearby Piedmont.