The northeastern French ski resort of Les Deux Alpes was on Wednesday night (January 13) in shock after three people died in an avalanche late in the afternoon, and after the judicial authority announced an investigation was being opened to determine responsibilities, as the killed and injured skiers were on a closed slope.
The avalanche hit a school group of 19 teenagers and one of their teachers from a high school in Lyon, and other skiers a little bit after 1530GMT, while they were on a black slope of the 200 km slope ski resort, which is about 50 km away from the Italian border.
Despite the fact that rescue teams were quick to arrive at the site, three people died, and another was transported to the hospital in serious condition.
“The resort is totally under shock, it’s true that we have lived a dramatic moment, and our thoughts are going of course to the families, because we count three victims, one adult of Ukrainian origin, and two high school teenagers, a 14 year old high school girl, and a 16 high school boy who lost their lives in this avalanche,” director of “Les Deux Alpes Loisirs” resort Didier Bobillier told reporters.
Apart from the two teenagers who died, all other students from the group of 19 had been accounted for and were safe, they were evacuated to their hometown of Lyon in the evening.
The avalanche happened late in the afternoon after a large sheet of snow broke off above the slope following several days of heavy snowfall.
“This slope was not opened to the public, it’s a slope that since the beginning of the season has not been opened because we estimated that the security conditions were not there to do so, in particular because of the lack of snow, and a group of high school teenagers, with a teacher, decided to go on it anyway, and apparently an avalanche came on top of them”, he explained, insisting that he was sure that there were signs on site.
But for the judicial authority, this is now what has to be determined: were there indeed signs clear enough to indicate the slope was closed, or not, and what were they doing there.
“These are legitimate questions everyone can ask himself, and the very first person who is asking himself these questions is the judicial authority which has ordered the opening of an investigation to determine the reasons why this group decided to progress on a slope that wasn’t opened and establish, if needed, responsibilities,” Colonel Jean-Luc Villeminey, in command of the department’s gendarmes, said. (Reuters)