At least six people were killed and several others injured in an avalanche that struck the French Alps over the weekend,
CNN reports.
Emergency workers were deployed after the incident at the Armancette glacier near Mont Blanc in southeast France, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted on Sunday. Rescue work is ongoing.
Clouds of snow rolled down the mountainside, according to video footage shared by Reuters that was tweeted by a nearby ski station, Contamines-Montjoie.
The avalanche occurred at the glacier on Sunday. The conditions on the mountain were described as “not particularly alarming,” with the president of France’s mountain guide union, Dorian Labaeye, telling France Info that he did not know how such a tragedy could have happened in “good conditions.”
The avalanche spread across an area of 1 kilometer by 500 meters, at an altitude of 3,500 meters (11,480 feet), according to a spokesperson for the local authorities of Haute-Savoie, Reuters reported.
The people swept away by the avalanche were backcountry skiing and the identities of the victims are being confirmed.
