 Rescue workers say it is too dangerous to retrieve the bodies |
Search teams say they have located the bodies of some of the eight climbers swept away in an avalanche in the French Alps on Sunday. However, they said the remains could not be retrieved, as snow conditions remained too unstable. Officials also said the dead had been identified, and included four Germans, an Austrian and three Swiss. Previously they had thought that five Austrians and three Swiss were missing after the disaster. Rescue teams flew over the scene of an avalanche on Monday, and said their monitoring equipment had picked up signals sent by the climbers' transmitters. Earlier they said that there was no chance of finding any survivors, and that the victims' bodies may never be recovered. The eight were among a party of climbers hit by a wall of snow 200m (600ft) long and 50m wide, that struck as they climbed the Mont Blanc range. Survivors told how they were "mown down" by the wall of snow. "There was absolutely no noise, it was very disturbing. We only had time to swerve to the right before being mown down," said Frenchman Nicolas Duquesne, one of eight people who survived the disaster. He said he had to "swim" through the snow to keep his head above the surface. Lethal year The accident happened at about 0300 (0100 GMT) on Sunday morning on the Mont-Blanc du Tacul mountain, part of the range that includes Mont Blanc, Europe's highest peak.  Rescue teams failed to uncover the victims on Sunday |
The climbers set off during the night, in order to take advantage of firmer snow caused by overnight freezing. But a large block of glacier ice - a "serac" - broke off higher up the mountain, triggering a huge cascade of snow that swept the party away. Eight survived but eight others were apparently buried beneath tons of snow. Rescuers said it was too risky to try to retrieve the bodies. A spokesman for the regional police told the AFP news agency that the avalanche area remained "extremely dangerous, because it is surrounded by seracs". "There is no question of putting our search teams' lives in danger," he added. It is not known how many bodies have been located. The avalanche was the deadliest to hit climbers in the Alps this year. The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says it has been a lethal summer, with about 100 climbers killed since 1 June in France, Italy, Austria and Switzerland. About 20 of them have died on Mont Blanc.
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